Enough fentanyl to kill 1.1 million people seized in NC mountain raids, sheriff says
In a record drug bust, deputies seized enough fentanyl to kill 1.14 million people, a sheriff in the North Carolina mountains said Friday.
Deputies recovered a total of 5 pounds of the synthetic opioid in coordinated raids of two apartments and a storage unit Wednesday, according to a Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office news release.
One of the apartments is on Eastview Circle in west Asheville and the other is on Hendersonville Road south of Biltmore Forest. The storage unit is on Sardis Road in southwest Asheville.
Three women and two men were arrested and jailed on 59 criminal charges, sheriff’s officials said.
Deputies also seized heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, 2,500 miscellaneous pills, 88 Suboxone dosage units and a semi-automatic handgun, investigators said. Suboxone is a prescription drug that treats opioid addiction.
Fentanyl is about 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin as an analgesic, according the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Just a tiny amount on the tip of a pencil can kill a person, DEA officials said.
The drug “is a major contributor to fatal and nonfatal overdoses in the U.S.,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At least 150 people die each day from overdoses of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, the CDC reports.
Arrested were Shabazz Nygel Tucker, Sequoyah Lashay Burt, Sophia Hope Ridener, Terry Anthony Graham Jr. and Keiana Taliyah Webber, according to the news release.
The arrests followed a months-long investigation by the sheriff’s illegal gun reduction and narcotics task force. Other agencies assisted, including Haywood County Sheriff’s Office narcotics investigators, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, N.C. Probation and Parole, Asheville Police, the State Bureau of Investigation and numerous Buncombe County sheriff’s units.
In a statement on Facebook, Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller thanked all of the agencies.
“This seizure of 5.03 pounds of Fentanyl equates to 1,141,200 lethal doses that have now been removed from our community,” Miller said.
This story was originally published October 14, 2023 at 8:49 AM.