The Rocky Mountain Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seized around 570,000 fake fentanyl pills from three separate drug busts in Colorado in a week.
Knewz.com has learned that the investigation into the seized fentanyl shipments is ongoing, per the DEA.
Last year established a record for Colorado as the DEA seized 2.6 million fentanyl pills from the state in 2023.
However, the federal agency stated that the fake fentanyl haul from this week's drug busts in Colorado has already reached 22% of last year's number.
"As seen by the totals, Colorado is on pace to easily break last year's fake fentanyl pill seizure record of 2.61 million," DEA Rocky Mountain Field Division Special Agent in charge Jonathan Pullen said in an official press release from the agency (which is inaccessible at the time of writing), via CBS News.
Pullen noted that seven out of every 10 pills seized in drug busts contain a potentially fatal dose of fentanyl. "Seizing another 570,000 pills in Colorado means many lives have likely been saved," he added.
"The total number of pills seized so far this month proves the Mexican drug cartels are not slowing down production and distribution of this poison as we head into the summer months. Every day the men and women of DEA and our partner agencies are working hard to get fake fentanyl pills off the streets."
The drug busts that turned up this massive haul of fake fentanyl involved members of multiple state and local law enforcement agencies, Pullen mentioned.
The DEA further urged families to emphasize the lethal nature of the drug, pointing out that 70% of the 108,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States are caused due to fentanyl, per CBS News.
A new study from the Common Sense Institute noted that the total cost of fentanyl-related overdose deaths in Colorado is estimated to have reached $16 billion in 2023. Further elaborating on the potential lethality of fentanyl, the study wrote:
"Two milligrams of pure fentanyl is a lethal dose. Depending on the purity of the [amount of drugs seized by DEA], 2023’s seizures could be enough to kill every Coloradan 36 times or to kill one in every three Coloradans. On average, 44% of sampled tablets seized in 2021 contained at least 2 mg of fentanyl."
"Assuming this distribution, 187.3 kg [nearly 413 pounds] of the seized tablets contain a lethal dose, or enough to kill every Coloradan 16 times. The DEA also notes purity of these tablets has been rising."
The study also found that 72.3% of all drug overdose deaths in Colorado are caused due to opioids.
"According to the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board, Americans consume more opioids than citizens in any other country," said Nicholas Bellofatto, Director of Admissions for Amethyst Recovery Center, in a comment on a study conducted by the Center to determine the U.S. state with the most number of overdose deaths.
The Amethyst Recovery Center study placed West Virginia at the top of the list of states with the highest number of fatal drug overdose incidents, with 75.3 deaths per 100,000 people. The mountain state had 1,335 overdose-related deaths in 2022 alone.
The local news outlet Denver7 reported that the Common Sense Institute will be holding a panel discussion to examine the Fentanyl issue with research and experts from Colorado, Arizona, Iowa, and Oregon on June 27.
