California Highway Patrol Seizes Enough Fentanyl to Kill a Quarter of Californians | WPN World People News

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) recently announced that, during a routine traffic stop in California's Central Valley, officers seized nearly 30 kilograms of fentanyl pills—an amount potent enough to kill a quarter of California’s population.

According to CHP, last month during a stop near Airport Boulevard on Interstate 5, a K-9 detected the scent of drugs. Officers discovered two duffel bags and one shopping bag in the vehicle, all filled with counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl, approximately 330,000 pills in total. The driver, a resident of Washington State, was subsequently arrested and sent to Yolo County Jail.

Fentanyl is a powerful opioid analgesic often used for surgical anesthesia, terminal cancer pain, severe pain, or chronic intractable pain. It is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, and illegal use or overdose can result in fatal consequences. However, due to its low cost and addictive effects, it has been sold illicitly by criminals in recent years.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, only a few milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal. The quantity of pills seized in this bust could produce between 10 million to 15 million lethal doses, enough to kill a quarter of California’s population.

Just a few weeks prior, CHP seized $1.7 million worth of fentanyl in two separate drug busts in the Central Valley, arresting three suspects, one of whom attempted to hide drugs among packages of raw beef. Since January, California’s narcotics task forces have seized over 2,260 kilograms of fentanyl powder and 9.6 million fentanyl-laced pills, with a total value exceeding $43 million.