New York City authorities seized more than 200 pounds of opioids in two separate drug busts in August and September, reports NJ.com.
The first bust occurred Aug. 1, when police and federal agents raided a couple's Queens apartment. Authorities found 140 pounds of fentanyl and 48 pounds of fentanyl mixed with heroin. Officials said the drugs were worth about $30M, and the amount of fentanyl seized was equivalent to 32 million lethal doses. The raid marked the largest fentanyl seizure in the city's history.
The second drug bust occurred Sept. 5, after New York police officers and New Jersey Drug Enforcement Agency intercepted two men transporting about 55 pounds of drugs from New Jersey to New York. The seized packages contained pure fentanyl and fentanyl mixed with heroin.
"The sheer volume of fentanyl pouring into the city is shocking," Bridget Brennan, New York City's special narcotics prosecutor, told NBC New York. "It's not only killing a record number of people in New York City, but the city is used as a hub of regional distribution for a lethal substance that is taking thousands of lives throughout the Northeast."
Of the 64,070 drug overdose deaths that occurred in the U.S last year, more than 20,000 involved synthetic opioids like fentanyl, according to the CDC.
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