Maine authorities on Thursday seized enough fentanyl to kill over half the state in two separate searches of a home and a vehicle.
The state drug enforcement agency seized 3.75 pounds of fentanyl, most of which was found in a house, worth around $225,000 on Sept. 1, according to WMTV. Using the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) metric that says one kilogram of fentanyl is enough to kill 500,000 people, the seizure is enough to potentially kill over 850,000 people while Maine has a population of 1.3 million people. (RELATED: Fentanyl Street Price Plummets While Country Faces High Prices Under The Biden Administration)
Authorities found three pounds of fentanyl after they executed a search warrant of a home in Cambridge and the rest in a car in Ellsworth, according to WMTV. The drugs were going to be distributed in Somerset, Penobscot, Hancock and Washington counties.
During a traffic stop, authorities arrested Mark Jordan, 31, and Peggy Lou Strout, 66, who face charges of aggravated trafficking.
Photo Courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Fentanyl is made in clandestine labs outside of the U.S. and smuggled through Mexico, according to the DEA. Fentanyl is made using chemicals made in China.
Border authorities in Arizona seized nearly 300,000 fentanyl pills in two days recently. Days before, border authorities in the same area seized enough fentanyl to kill around 1.5 million people.
Between October and July 2022, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has seized around 10,600 pounds of the lethal narcotic, according to agency statistics.
The drug is largely responsible for the over 100,000 overdose deaths in the U.S., some of those deaths are caused by fentanyl-laced pills that are made to look like prescription drugs, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram previously told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“The cartels are mass producing these pills in Mexico mostly and they’re making them look like they’re real Oxycodone, like they’re real hydrocodone, Percocet, Adderall,” Milgram explained. “And then they’re bringing them, flooding them into the United States.”
The state’s drug enforcement agency didn’t respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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