The DEA seized a record-breaking 386 million deadly fentanyl doses last year in New York State alone — enough to kill every American.
Nearly 10% of the captured drugs came in the form of pills and powder that were marketed as another drug, but were hiding a potent and lethal fentanyl dosage inside, the federal agency’s New York division announced Thursday.
“Deception masks reality when it comes to deadly drugs on today’s city streets,” DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarentino said.
“The vast majority of the exhibits submitted into the DEA’s New York City-based Northeast Regional Laboratory were fentanyl; lab analysis also revealed that fake prescription pills were anything but prescription drugs.”
The record-breaking busts amount to nearly 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder and more than 77 million potent pills — a 119% increase in fentanyl pill seizures over the prior year.
Just two milligrams of the dangerously potent drug is enough to kill — approximately the amount that fits on the tip of a pencil.
Roughly 4.2 million of the pills and 1,100 pounds of the powder were disguised as another drug, in some cases prescription drugs, amounting to 37 million masked lethal dosages, the DEA said.
Another disturbing trend related to the synthetic opioid hit a new high a year earlier.
A record number of high school teens across the US were killed by the drug in 2022, primarily by fentanyl poisonings from counterfeit pills. Fentanyl overdose is also the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.
A large portion of the seized drugs were nabbed in major drug busts in New York City.
One of the largest seizures in DEA history came in October when investigators found more than 50 pounds of powdered fentanyl and 200,000 pills stashed inside a Bronx mill.
One month later, a daycare center was caught harboring a secret drug mill behind the kids’ playroom after a 1-year-old boy was killed by inhaling the deadly drug.
Earlier in the year, a crafty drug smuggler from a Mexican cartel was caught driving a Ford Expedition near Yankee Stadium with 300,000 fentanyl-laced pills stashed in the gas tank.
Video of the heist shows officers repeatedly sticking their hands in the tank and pulling out a seemingly never-ending stream of packaged drugs coated in a layer of oil.
The record-breaking fentanyl seizures are likely to be a dark indicator for the highest drug overdose deaths across the country, as predicted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
DEA
More than 112,300 Americans were killed from drug poisonings between June 2022 and June 2023, nearly 70% of which were caused by fentanyl.
An estimated 6,000 people in New York died from drug poisonings in 2023, approximately half of which occurred in New York City.
New York’s DEA division also saw a 270% increase in methamphetamine seizures, a 307% increase in methamphetamine pill seizures and a 55% increase in cocaine seizures.
Other cities across the nation, including Omaha, Nebraska and Kansas City, Missouri, have also reported record-breaking fentanyl seizures in 2023.
