Enough fentanyl to kill whole county seized in Iredell County traffic stop
Enough fentanyl to kill more than the entire population of Iredell County was seized by the sheriff’s office this week.
A traffic stop north of Statesville turned into a physical altercation and a police pursuit. The suspect was arrested after he rammed his car into a sheriff’s patrol car. Authorities say they found 1.4 lbs of fentanyl, an opioid, in his vehicle.
Just 2 mg of fentanyl can kill someone. The amount found during Monday’s search contains enough potency to kill at least 250,000 people, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Iredell County’s population is less than 200,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The fentanyl brick has a street value of $125,400, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
“Bottom line, this arrest saved lives here in Iredell County,” Sheriff Darren Campbell said in the release.
Deputies charged Muhammad Zakariyya Abdur-Rahim, 31, of South Carolina, with assault with a deadly weapon on a government official, possession of a firearm by a felon, and trafficking a controlled substance, and other crimes, according to the sheriff’s office. He’s accused of resisting arrest and assaulting two deputies, who used a taser on him but he was able to get back into his vehicle and drive away from police.
Deputies say they pursued Abdur-Rahim onto Interstate 77 South and then Highway 21 South before catching up with him in a Lowe’s parking lot. In the parking lot, he avoided deputies again and rammed into a patrol car, according to the sheriff’s office. The BMW he was driving was then disabled and he ran.
During a search of his car, deputies say they also found a concealed handgun and vacuum-packed bags of marijuana.
As of Thursday, he was still in jail, being held on a $500,000 bond.
This story was originally published September 1, 2022 at 10:15 AM.
