As a result of the Covid pandemic and the rise of fentanyl, the terrible opioid epidemic in the US has cost the government about $1.5 trillion alone in 2020. A record 69,000 people died from the potent painkillers in only that one year, and that number increased to a new high of more than 75,000 in 2021. The long-lasting opioid issue peaked during the pandemic, when hospital closures and lockdowns made people especially susceptible to addiction.
A drug that contributed to the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans last year has been found hidden in candy packaging – and could be peddled to young children via social media, experts say. The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said drug traffickers have expanded their inventory to sell fentanyl – a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin – in a variety of bright colors, shapes, and sizes. A recent seizure that took place in Connecticut found 15,000 fentanyl pills stashed in the packaging of Skittles and Nerds, and with Halloween round the corner, the DEA is advising parents to be cautious.
With a former specialist warning that “this is not a drug issue, it’s a mass poisoning,” the organization has issued a strong caution to parents to educate themselves as kids get ready for the Halloween season.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEAOne)’s Pill Can Kill effort resulted in the seizure of 10.2 million fentanyl tablets and approximately 980 pounds of fentanyl powder from May 23 to September 8 of this year. Health fans and parents are very upset with this development.
35 of the 390 instances studied during this time have been directly tied to one or both of the two main Mexican cartels that supply the majority of the fentanyl in the United States, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, with 51 cases being linked to overdose poisonings (CJNG).
Severo Alelar, 25, of Hyattsville, and Oscar Flores, 34, of Mount Rainier met up with a person in Wethersfield, Connecticut, with plans to sell 15,000 tablets at that time. It came out that the person they were interacting with was a DEA agent working undercover.
The SUV’s driver sped up and drove over a roadside curb onto a grassy area where law enforcement cars had boxed it in when a Rocky Hill police officer tried to pull it over for a traffic infringement. Numerous Skittles candy bags and Nerds candy boxes packed with thousands of fentanyl pills were discovered by investigators while searching the SUV.
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The indictment accused Flores and Alelar of conspiring to distribute and possess fentanyl with a street value of 40 grams or more, as well as of possessing the drug with the purpose to distribute it. Each could potentially spend up to 40 years in prison.
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