Los Angeles Police Department executed a search warrant on Thursday, October 17th, and seized over 50 pounds of fentanyl and 9 pounds of black tar heroin.
According to a statement by the LAPD, a 28-year-old man was arrested for trafficking fentanyl.
These drugs were discovered during an undercover drug investigation near downtown Los Angeles by various units of the LAPD, including the Central Area Narcotics Enforcement Detail and the Central Gang Impact Team.
Law enforcement officials executed the search warrant in the 7500 block of Central Avenue in South Los Angeles, where they found over 50 pounds of fentanyl powder, close to 9 pounds of black tar heroin, and $14,500 in cash.
The Drug Enforcement Administration stated that the street value of the seized drugs is approximately $4 million. The police mentioned in their statement, “If the lethal dose of fentanyl is 2 milligrams, then this batch of seized fentanyl could potentially kill over 11 million people.”
This number is nearly triple the population of Los Angeles.
LAPD has not disclosed further details regarding the seized drugs or the undercover operation.
Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine.
Mexican drug cartels increasingly import fentanyl precursors from China and then press them into pills or mix them into other counterfeit drugs that resemble Xanax, Adderall, or hydrocodone, which are then sold in the United States.
Fentanyl is responsible for about 70% of all drug overdose deaths in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 75,000 Americans died from synthetic opioid overdoses in 2023, mainly attributed to fentanyl.
The Department of Justice in the United States stated that black tar heroin, also known as “black dragon,” is another addictive opioid that is typically produced in the states of Durango, Sinaloa, and Sonora in Mexico and smuggled into the United States by undocumented immigrants and migrant laborers.
If anyone has information related to the fentanyl and black tar heroin discovered during Thursday’s raid, they are urged to call the Central Area Narcotics Enforcement Detail at 213-486-6664 or contact the crime tip hotline at 800-222-8477 or visit lacrimestoppers.org to report anonymously.