The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said that, last year, the Louisville Division yielded the seizure of 184,382 fentanyl-laced, fake prescription pills and 316 pounds of Fentanyl powder.
“Fentanyl is a national problem, and it’s landed right on our doorstep,” DEA Louisville Division Special Agent in Charge Todd Scott said. “No one is immune to this scourge. Fentanyl is killing Americans in record numbers, and almost every community has been touched by these deaths.”
The Louisville Division encompasses Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia. The DEA seized more than 50.6 million fentanyl-laced, fake prescription pills and over 10,000 pounds of Fentanyl powder last year.
“In the past year, the men and women of the DEA have relentlessly worked to seize over 379 million deadly doses of fentanyl from communities across the country,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said. “These seizures – enough deadly doses of fentanyl to kill every American – reflect DEA’s unwavering commitment to protect Americans and save lives by tenaciously pursuing those responsible for the trafficking of fentanyl across the United States.”
Milgram said the DEA’s top operational priority is to defeat the two Mexican drug cartels primarily responsible for the fentanyl killing Americans – the Sinaloa and Jalisco (CJNG) Cartels.
Per the DEA, most of the fentanyl trafficked by the Sinaloa and CJNG Cartels is mass-produced at secret factories in Mexico with chemicals sourced largely from China. Fentanyl-laced, fake prescription pills are made to look identical to real prescription medications but only contain filler and fentanyl and are often deadly.