The Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZDPS) reported on Monday that troopers seized more than 260 pounds of fentanyl pills in just four traffic stops in a one week period.
Troopers seized 262.02 pounds of fentanyl pills between November 7 and November 14, the agency revealed in a press release. Eight suspects were arrested as a result of the seizures.
All four incidents began with normal traffic stops, the agency reported. On November 7, a driver and passenger in Fountain Hills were pulled over for normal traffic violations, then arrested when 53 pounds of fentanyl were discovered in a spare tire. The next day, 104.52 pounds of fentanyl pills were discovered by police dogs during another routine traffic stop in Welton, and two suspects were arrested.
On November 10, the agency reported a trooper “observed indicators of criminal activity,” and a canine later discovered 25 pounds of fentanyl pills in a backpack. Four days later, a trooper discovered 79.5 pounds of fentanyl pills in another spare tire.
The press release explains the 262.02 pounds equates to about 1.18 million individual fentanyl pills. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), as little as two milligrams of fentanyl are enough to cause a fatal overdose in an adult, and the agency found 42 percent of individual tablets contain this lethal amount, meaning the seized pills could have killed nearly 500,000 Americans.
Additionally, the agency reported that a number of the pills “tested positive for xylazine, a powerful sedative” used as an animal tranquilizer. The DEA warns xylazine “places users at a higher risk of suffering a fatal drug poisoning.”
A press release from the DEA warned that xylazine is not an opioid, which means naxolone, better known by the brand name Narcan, does not reverse its sedative effects. Users who inject drugs mixed with xylazine can also “develop severe wounds, including necrosis – the rotting of human tissue – that may lead to amputation,” the agency explained.
Though seizures of most drugs by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have fallen under the Biden administration, the agency has reported an 83.7 percent increase in the number of fentanyl seizures in 2023.
According to the agency’s publicly available drug seizure statistics, CBP seized 14,700 pounds of fentanyl by October 2022. As of October of this year, the agency reported seizing 27,000 pounds of fentanyl.
In 2021, CBP reported seizing more than 900,000 pounds of drugs. That number shrank to 656,000 in 2022. CBP reported seizing a smaller number of pounds of marijuana, methamphetamine, heroine, khat, ketamine, ecstasy, and LSD in 2023 when compared to 2022, but the agency has reported seizing more cocaine, fentanyl, and drugs that are not otherwise categorized.
Arizona is considered an origin state for illicit drugs due to its shared border with Mexico, and two Arizona men were recently arrested in Pennsylvania after allegedly trafficking fentanyl across the United States to sell it near Philadelphia.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
