Law enforcement agencies throughout California have seized more than 4 million fentanyl pills, 900 pounds of fentanyl powder and made more than 200 arrests of dealers and “poison peddlers” since April 2021, officials said Wednesday.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the results of multiple takedowns up and down the state during a news conference.
“These operations have progressively and strategically worked to detect, to deter, to disrupt and dismantle fentanyl rings and criminal enterprises,” he said.
A bag of rainbow-colored fentanyl pills. On Wednesday, California officials said more than 4 million fentanyl pills have been seized in the state since April 2021 as authorities ramp up drug busts to combat the opioid crisis.
( U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA))
He noted significant law enforcement busts in Southern California, which yielded 2.3 million fentanyl pills and 762 pounds of powder. In the Inland Empire, east of Los Angeles, authorities seized 790,000 pills and over 36 pounds of fentanyl powder and arrested 25 suspects in the past 18 months.
In the state’s Central Valley, authorities there seized 440,000 pills and 15 pounds of fentanyl powder. Another bust in the same region also yielded another 488,000 pills.
In 2020, 5,502 people died in California due to overdosing on opioids, of which 3,946 died due to fentanyl overdose, the state Department of Justice said.
Recently, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and police departments across the country warned of the threat posed by rainbow-colored fentanyl pills so close to Halloween. However, experts say the concerns are overblown.
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“I’ve always found this concern to be exaggerated. I’m sure this does happen sometimes, but it is unlikely. Even if fentanyl pills were only a few dollars each, most people would likely find them too expensive to give to kids on Halloween as a sick joke,” Joseph Palamar, an associate professor in the Department of Population Health at New York University Langone Medical Center, told Fox News Digital last week.
