Authorities in Boston recently scored one of the largest drug busts in Massachusetts’ history, seizing enough fentanyl to cause seven million fatal overdoses.
The massive grab was the result of a six month wiretap investigation dubbed “Operation High Hopes,” that monitored a gang in the Boston area with links to the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico. Boston police and agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration arrested 38 suspected narcotics traffickers in the bust that yielded more than 33 pounds of fentanyl, as well as cocaine, heroin, $300,000 in cash and two firearms, reported Fox News.
Officials said the find was “truly staggering,” noting the fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, was enough to wipe out the entire population of Massachusetts.
“I want to be clear about the size and scope here,” District Attorney Daniel Conley said Thursday, according to Fox News. “Individuals who buy and sell at this level aren’t users, they’re not small-time dealers, either. They’re certainly not selling to support a habit. They’re trafficking in addictive substances that claim more lives in Massachusetts than all homicides, all suicides, and all car crashes, statewide, combined.”
Narcotics continue to pour over the border due to the relentless efforts of drug cartels trying to take advantage of America’s debilitating opioid epidemic.
Fentanyl overtook heroin as the deadliest substance in the U.S. in 2016, claiming 19,413 lives in 2017, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The substance is fueling more overdose deaths as drug dealers increasingly cut the substance into heroin and cocaine supplies to maximize profits.
Nationally, drug overdoses are now the leading cause of accidental death for Americans under age 50, killing more than 64,000 people in 2016. Opioid overdoses made up a staggering 66 percent of all drug overdose deaths in 2016, surpassing the annual number of lives lost to breast cancer.
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