By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
The DEA and Tempe Police Department seized about 30,000 counterfeit pills containing the powerful and deadly opioid fentanyl.
Local and federal authorities said the pills, discovered Sunday during a traffic stop, are tied to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, Tucson News Now reports.
“This massive seizure removed thousands of potentially lethal doses of this powerful narcotic off the streets,” said Doug Coleman, Special Agent in Charge of DEA in Arizona. “DEA will never relent in its pursuit of Mexican cartels who manufacture huge quantities of fake oxycodone pills using fentanyl.”
Fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid that is much more powerful than heroin, is to blame for thousands of deaths a year.
The counterfeit pills were made to look like oxycodone.
Authorities said Mexican cartels are lacing pills with fentanyl, which is cheaper and easier to produce.
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