Fentanyl disguised as other drugs alarms authorities
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/apr/16/fentanyl-smuggling-attempt-raises-concerns/
U.S. customs officers at the Otay Mesa border crossing found the tablets hidden in the man’s underwear.
There were more than 1,000 pills labeled as oxycodone, but a Drug Enforcement Administration lab later discovered that the tablets contained a far stronger opiate — fentanyl.
The Feb. 10 confiscation is believed to be the first time federal officials along the California-Mexico border intercepted fentanyl tablets disguised as oxycodone, raising concerns among authorities that such cover-ups could lead to fatal consequences.
“Unsuspecting individuals who illegally purchase oxycodone could potentially die from the ingestion of what turns out to be fentanyl tablets,” U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy said in a statement this past week. “We are very concerned that these counterfeit pills could cause serious harm to users.”
In the Sacramento area there have been more than 40 overdoses believed to be tied to fentanyl since late March — 10 of them fatal. Some of the individuals thought they were taking Norco, a less potent painkiller, authorities said.
The DEA issued a public safety alert April 1 warning that fentanyl-related overdoses are “occurring at an alarming rate” and urged people to only take pills prescribed by a physician or obtained from a reputable pharmacy.
In San Diego County, fatal overdoses linked to fentanyl rose from 16 in 2014 to 28 last year, according to data from the Medical Examiner’s Office. There have been two deaths tied to fentanyl this year, but investigators have not yet determined what led to many other overdoses, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner said.
Health officials say overdosing on fentanyl, which is 25 to 50 times stronger than heroin, lowers blood pressure, diminishes breathing and slows the heart rate. A form of fentanyl is typically used in a clinical setting for extreme pain management or as an anesthetic during surgery. It can be prescribed in patch or lollipop form.
Because fentanyl is cheap to manufacture illicitly, disguising it as other drugs is more profitable for dealers. Mexican drug cartels are known to purchase fentanyl from China and produce the opiate from precursors sourced from abroad.
“These criminals are putting fentanyl into fake pills and passing them off as legitimate prescription medications,” said William Sherman, special agent in charge of the DEA in San Diego. “This just goes to show the lengths to which criminals will go to make an easy buck.”
In 2014, the DEA noted the sudden appearance of fentanyl in San Diego-area smuggling busts. In October of that year, Border Patrol agents near Murrieta seized 32 pounds of fentanyl, valued at more than $600,000, authorities said. A few weeks later, 14 people were indicted in a cross-country drug trafficking ring that smuggled drugs including fentanyl from Mexico through San Diego.
Alarmed by the recent overdoses and deaths linked to the drug, Sen. Patricia Bates, R-Laguna Niguel, introduced a state bill earlier this month to increase prison time for those who sell or distribute large amounts of the powerful painkiller.
Among those backing the measure is San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore, who said in a letter of support that Senate Bill 1232 “validates the serious nature of fentanyl.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, however, argues it would only aggravate jail crowding.
The suspected drug smuggler in the February incident, Sergio Mendoza Bohon, 19, of Tijuana, was arraigned in federal court in San Diego Thursday. Besides the tablets, he was also found with 5.4 grams of powdered fentanyl, prosecutors said.
david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com
Filed under: General Problems
Does anyone remember the BATFE operation called “Fast and Furious”? This occurred during Obama’s first term under his then Attorney General Eric Holder’s watch and, in a nutshell, was essentially the BATFE running guns right along along with the other criminal enterprises, ostensibly to round up the other scoundrels and put then away. One of the tracked guns ended up being used in a firefight against US Law Enforcement and an officer was killed. Holder obstructed the criminal and congressional investigations,, citing national security concerns. Obama, when questioned what he knew and when, cited executive privilege.
So what does this have to do with narcotics trafficking? Our own DEA, in my opinion, is complicit in this. What better way to scare people straight than than to create actual poison-laced narcotics. This isn’t the first time that the prohibitionist warriors have employed this tactic. During the alcohol prohibition era, the government directed the producers of industrial ethanol to further “denature” their products by adding additional methanol, among other things. The result was injury (mostly permanent blindness d/t optic nerve damage from methanol toxicity) and death of quite a few people. The bootleggers would buy the industrial alcohol and mix it in their bathtub with flavoring agents like juniper berry extract, hence the term bathtub gin. They didn’t know that the alcohol had been rendered a truly poisonous substance. The government’s rationale was the since people knew that it was illegal to purchase and consume alcoholic beverages recreationally, then it served them right for breaking the law. The matter was pretty much swept under the rug by the government and the most compliant mainstream media of the day, the newspaper. William Randolph Hearst and his newspaper empire comprised the biggest non-governmental entity of the the alcohol prohibition policy and since he controlled many of the major newspapers in that time, his complicity was crucial.
Can I prove that the DEA is involved? Possibly. I haven’t tried to as I have other brands in the fire right now that need attending. My point is that the government has done this sort of thing before and the neopuritanical attitude hasn’t changed in the about 90 years since the deliberate poisoning of alcohol took place. Our government has no problem denying people their Constitutionally Guaranteed Rights. Whether the alcohol poisoning of yesteryear or the current adulteration of street drugs with Fentanyl is the issue, our government is denying people their 5th, 6th and 8th Amendment rights in these cases. No due process, no jury trial by their peers and cruel and unusual punishment are what I am speaking of. The ingestion of such adulterated agents that results in death makes what was a de juris misdemeanor drug crime (under certain circumstances), into a de facto capital crime when it results in their death. I hope I’m wrong about the DEA in this case, but experience, through observation and study of history, tells me that I’m probably correct after all.
They certainly seems to be looking then other way making seem pretty complicit in all of of this. Especially if you hear the sheriffs and ranchers talk who patrol and own land right on the AZ borders
A large supply along with cheap prices indicate huge demand. This demand will continue to grow more and more each day as more pain patients continue to get dismissed by their doctors only to find they’re unable to find another doctor to prescribe them the pain medication that they’ve relied on for years to function and have some quality of life
Instead of allowing pain patients to have better access to safe prescription opioid medications that have been around for several decades and can help reduce physical pain, our government’s response of passing more draconian restrictions just pushes more pain patients, desperate for relief, onto the streets.
Are our elected officials so ignorant that they can’t see this or is there some sort of financial incentive behind all of these continuing restrictions? Common sense tells me that untreated pain can force even the most intelligent, law-abiding citizens of any age to do things they would never even dream of doing if their pain was adequately controlled.
Drug cartels are reaping the financial rewards of our government’s continuing response. They are taking advantage of the large amount of pain patients who are now forced to suffer, otherwise they would not be disguising their illicitly-produced fentanyl in the form of specific prescription pain pills.
So while our government continues to play with our lives by further restricting safe, affordable, effective, FDA approved prescription medications prescribed and monitored under a doctor’s guidance, drug cartels will continue to profit. The evidence is right there in black and white, but they’re either too stupid or too corrupt to see it.
Recently a young man OD’d..21 years old….a classmate of my son’s. The family does not know if the heroin was cut with fentanyl or not. He had been clean for 7 months prior…he may have given himself the same dose he last used when he started up again…this is what I got from the family. I can only guess there has been or will be no toxicology done. To the authorities, he’s just another OD. I hear a common cutting agent is diphenhydramine…they call it Domo. It’s interesting because we’ve had quite a few young deaths lately and everyone is hush hush on it. But on facebook, you get an idea something is off on the death. Except for this one young man’s death where it was put out there, the other’s were posted as real vague as to cause.
Have you all ever seen the movie ” Good Morning Vietnam ?” There is a part were Robin Williams was acting like he was interviewing and officer in the field. He asked why the war was still going on and in another voice he says, ” WE are have a hard time finding the Vietkong, he says we walk up to them and ask them. Are you the enemy? If they say yes, then we shoot them.”
This is so true on what our country’s come to since Vietnam. Look at the WARS we are currently involved in right now. The Taliban and ISIS simply are hiding among the population. They are fighting with terrorist tactics not Gorilla tactics. They use the population around them to blend in so they can attack before anyone even knows that they are there.
The Cartels have taken a serious page from this play book. For one thing they are using poor people who normally wouldn’t ever smuggle drugs. In some cases they hold families hostage to assure that the mule completes his job and they blend into the environment around them. The DEA just can’t find the leaders so the only way that this outdated agency can justify their existence is to go where they can find drugs. Some DUMBASS in the DEA leadership must have said, “I know where we can find a ton of drugs, the Pharmacy’s.”
I’m sure that the DEA didn’t count on backlash when they started all this BS. But then they are to stupid to realize what kind of collateral damage they were creating. That’s exactly why when it all started to blow back on them that they enlisted their sister agencies, CDC and FDA to help them explain their actions. The only way we are going to gain any ground in this is if we vote the current idiots out of government. Start writing, calling and emailing the candidates running for office and ask their views on our issues. Vote for the solution not the party.
Didn’t the DEA just last week say Mexican cartels care nothing about what’s going on with the supply of our (real) pharmaceuticals? Cuz it sure looks like they found a way to make money off it to me.
How would the DEA know anything about that unless they are on speaking terms with the cartels?