Mexican Authorities Announce ‘Largest Seizure in History’ After Recovering $230 Million Worth of Fentanyl

Mexico’s army and National Guard announced on Thursday that they had conducted a “historic” drug raid on a warehouse in Culiacan, seizing a half-ton of fentanyl valued at around $230 million, CBS News reports.

“This is the largest seizure in history of this lethal drug,” Assistant Public Safety Secretary Ricardo Mejia said.

Upwards of 1,200 pounds of the lethal synthetic drug were discovered in the warehouse, which authorities estimated could have produced millions of counterfeit Xanax, Adderall or Oxycodone pills. The purity of the Fentanyl was unclear, since it’s often cut with other drugs, and Mexico’s Defense Department said 10 men were arrested during the raid.

Authorities also conducted another raid that same day, where they found a half-ton of meth, cocaine, opium and 70 tons of other mixing chemicals.

Fentanyl is responsible for a majority of the overdose deaths in the United States, as it’s 100 times more potent than morphine and can be lethal at just two milligrams. Police recently said seizures of Fentanyl-laced pills increased 50-fold between 2018 and 2021, in part thanks to new technology that allows trucks crossing the border to be scanned for the opiate.

The raid also comes less than a month after Colorado State Patrol officers discovered 114 pounds of fentanyl in a vehicle driving to Denver on Interstate 70. Colorado authorities deemed it the largest seizure of the drug ever made on a highway.

“It’s a continued cat and mouse game between law enforcement and cartels,” Colorado State Patrol Smuggling, Trafficking and Interdiction Unit Captain Bill Barkley told the Colorado Gazette. “Whether or not it’s on I-70 or on I-25, or it’s on secondary highways coming into our state, I would bet every hour of every day there is something.”