A New Jersey woman was detained by investigators after it was claimed that she brought over 15,000 rainbow-colored fentanyl tablets into New York City, many of which were concealed behind LEGO bricks.
These drugs may be found in just about everything. According to DEA agent Frank A. Tarantino III, traffickers are incredibly inventive.
“The cartel is using this freshly packaged poison to draw in new clients.” This is a purposeful, intentional, dangerous ruse to make Rainbow fentanyl seem to be candy. Every parent’s biggest dread is this.
The pills, according to federal law enforcement officials, were produced in a variety of rainbow hues and seemed to be candies.
Few, if any, cases of children intentionally or accidentally being given fentanyl under the pretense that it is candy have been documented to far.
In Trenton, New Jersey, 48-year-old Latesha Bush was accused of criminal possession of a controlled substance.
Her bail was set at $25,000 when she appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday.
Bush allegedly boarded a car in front of 475 10th Avenue in Manhattan while carrying what looked to be a black tote bag wrapped around a sizable item, according to the prosecution.
Agents and cops reportedly stopped the car and discovered Bush in the backseat along with two black totes and a yellow LEGO box.
Several brick-shaped parcels wrapped in black tape were found within the LEGO container, along with LEGO pieces.
One of the packages’ black tape seals had been cracked, revealing the multicolored tablets within. The parcels were later examined, and it was discovered that they contained around 15,000 tablets.
Agents and cops discovered throughout the inquiry that Bush had driven a rented automobile from New Jersey only moments before being apprehended. Agents and cops also discovered that the fentanyl tablets in various colors reportedly came from Mexico.
According to the narcotics prosecutor for New York City, one person is thought to overdose and die every three hours.
Special narcotics prosecutor Bridget Brennan said that overdose fatalities are at an all-time high and that fentanyl is involved in 80% of them.
The public has to be informed about the new form that fentanyl is taking throughout the nation, and yes, we are aware that it is there in New York, she said.
Even for the Mexican cartels, using cheery colors to make a lethal narcotic look enjoyable and harmless is a new low. No matter how it may be marked medicinally or have a festive look, if you consume any drug that is sold on the street or online, you run the danger of dying.
According to Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell, “Fentanyl is a lethal poison that hurts our neighborhoods, our families, and our city. Disguising it as candy—and putting it in children’s toys—will never disguise this truth.”
The tablets were produced, according to the prosecution, by Mexican drug traffickers and branded to resemble oxycodone.
In addition to branding their goods, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel produce fentanyl tablets in bulk in rainbow hues that resemble candy or other legal prescription medications.
The seizure, which was the biggest in New York City to date, foreshadows a further spread of these lethal colored tablets.
These drugs are quite potent, and a tiny bit is all it takes to kill someone.
Two milligrams of fentanyl have been shown to be deadly. Fentanyl can fit on the tip of a pencil in that quantity. Ten to twenty grains of salt, roughly, Tarantino remarked.
In a recent 15-week operation, the state confiscated 500,000 deadly pills in numerous seizures around New York, according to investigators who claim 40% of the pills they studied had a death amount.
Parents are urged by prosecutors to talk to their children about the dangers of these bright, lethal tablets.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEAOne )’s Pill Can Kill effort resulted in the seizure of 10.2 million fentanyl tablets and about 980 pounds of fentanyl powder from May 23 to September 8 of this year.
35 of the 390 instances studied during this time have been directly tied to one or both of the two main Mexican cartels that provide the bulk of the fentanyl in the United States, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, with 51 cases being related to overdose poisonings (CJNG).
66 percent (or around 71,030) of the 107,622 Americans who died from drug toxicity or overdose in 2021 may be ascribed to fentanyl.
Since February 2022, when rainbow fentanyl was first reported to the DEA, it has been found and confiscated in 21 different states throughout the US.
A synthetic opioid called fentanyl is 50 times more strong than heroin. A potentially fatal dosage of fentanyl is thought to be as little as two milligrams, or about the size of the tip of a pencil.