California Detectives Seize 90 Pounds of Fentanyl: Enough to Kill Millions of Americans

Alameda County Sheriff's Office detectives and their partners at the Narcotics Task Force
Alameda County Sheriff's Office Facebook
Penny Starr

The Alameda County Narcotics Task Force conducted the biggest drug bust in the county’s history, seizing 90 pounds of fentanyl Friday that authorities said have a street value of $4.2 million, according to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.

Lt. Ray Kelly, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, said detectives found a fentanyl manufacturing lab last week after serving two search warrants in Oakland and Hayward in the California Bay Area.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the operation, which involved enough fentanyl to kill millions of Americans:

Detectives at the manufacturing lab found 92.58 pounds of fentanyl and two illegal firearms. One suspect involved in the manufacturing of fentanyl was taken into custody, and authorities are searching for a second suspect “on the run,” Kelly said. Neither suspects’ identities nor the exact location of the fentanyl lab were disclosed.

Bay Area public health officials say fentanyl, a synthetic opioid far more potent than heroin, has been the driver of the region’s opioid epidemic in recent years. About seven in 10 drug-related deaths in San Francisco involve fentanyl, according to figures from the city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, and the illicit drug can be lethal even in small amounts.

The sheriff’s office noted on their Facebook account that “per the dea.gov one kilogram of fentanyl can kill 500,000 people.”

“This shows you just how prolific our fentanyl problem is,” Kelly said in the article. “Every day, people in the Bay Area continue to overdose, young people suffering from addiction, and they’re dying at unacceptable rates. So this is just one dent that we feel we took.”

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