Three Mexicans charged, 1 million fentanyl pills seized outside LA

By BETHANY BLANKLEY THE CENTER SQUARE CONTRIBUTOR

(The Center Square) – Law enforcement officials seized roughly 1 million fentanyl pills in one single car outside of Los Angeles, California, this week.

If every single pill contained a lethal dose, the amount hidden inside of the body and trunk of a Volkswagen Jetta was enough to kill one million people.

According to a recent U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency analysis, 60% of pills it tests contain a lethal dose. A lethal dose is 2 milligrams, the weight of a mosquito.

At a minimum, the carload seized was enough to kill 600,000 people.

Three Mexican nationals – all single men ages 25, 28, and 29, were in possession of the fentanyl pills. They were arrested and charged in federal court, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced.

All three are from Sinaloa, Mexico, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office, the region after which one of the most dangerous cartels is named.

The Sinaloa Cartel controls the drug trade throughout the southern border, covering California, Arizona, New Mexico, and into El Paso, Texas. Other cartels vie for control in Texas, including CJNG, Zeta, and Gulf cartels, law enforcement officials have explained to The Center Square.

The Mexican nationals were apprehended in

El Monte, California, roughly 150 miles north of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. While some Democratic politicians have claimed the majority of fentanyl is being seized at ports of entry, law enforcement officers are seizing in single car loads enough fentanyl precursors and/or pills to kill entire populations of towns.

In one recent bust in Arizona, also 150 miles north of the border, enough fentanyl was seized to kill 800,000 people. Cartel and gang operatives traffic people and drugs from Mexico through the southern border to major U.S. cities, where they arrange distribution throughout the U.S., law enforcement officials have explained. Southern California is a major distribution hub, whose criminal network has reached Florida prisons, according to a recent operation.

The Sinaloa cartel’s reach extends to all major U.S. cities and throughout the world, law enforcement officials have also told The Center Square.

According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, the three Mexican nationals met with two buyers at a restaurant in El Segundo, California, about an hour from El Monte, on Tuesday. They initially engaged in a 10,000fentanyl-pill sample sale followed by a planned 1-million-fentanyl-pill sale.

During the meeting, two of the defendants, Florencio Camacho Allan, 28, and Gerardo Gaixola-Patino, 29, met with the buyers while a third defendant, Alex Valdez Oroz, 25, remained in the car, a white Volkswagen Jetta, according to the affidavit.

After the meeting, Mr. Allan and Mr. Gaixola-Patino went to the parking lot where they allegedly sold 10,000 fentanyl pills to the buyers for $7,500, according to law enforcement. They then left the restaurant under surveillance of law enforcement.

Later in the day, Mr. Allan reportedly confirmed with one of the buyers his interest in another sale, this time for one million pills. He showed the buyer the pills in his trunk using a WhatsApp video call, according to the complaint.

After receiving information about the pills’ location, law enforcement officers performed a traffic stop on their car in an El Monte hotel parking lot. They searched the car and found roughly one million fentanyl pills in multiple packages hidden in the body and trunk of the car and arrested the three Mexican nationals.

If convicted, each defendant faces a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is investigating the case as part of a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program in partnership with Homeland Security Investigations, the Hawthorne Police Department, the Fullerton Police Department, the El Monte Police Department, and the California National Guard.

Assistant United States Attorneys Lyndsi Allsop of the Violent and Organized Crime Section and K. Afia Bondero of the General Crimes Section are prosecuting the case.

California officials issue warnings about ‘tranq’ drug on streets, Xylazine-laced fentanyl

By BETHANY BLANKLEY THE CENTER SQUARE CONTRIBUTOR

(The Center Square) – California officials are warning about the dangers of Xylazine, an animal tranquilizer being laced with fentanyl and other illicit drugs now on the streets that’s potentially making them even more lethal.

They’re doing so after Arizona officials warned that Mexican cartels are using Xylazine as a cutting agent for fentanyl.

Officials in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego have all sounded the alarm after law enforcement officers confiscated illicit drugs, including fentanyl, and found them to be laced with Xylazine.

The Los Angeles Department of Public Health issued an alert warning about “the increased risk of overdose and death associated with Xylazine, which is increasingly present within illicit drugs in California.”

Officials in San Francisco and San Diego have already detected Xylazine in drug samples so far this year, the warning said, “indicating that Xylazine is now likely present within the drug supply in Los Angeles.”

The warning states: “Xylazine comes in a clear liquid that is cooked down into a powder form

Angeles Department and is mixed with illicit opioids such as heroin or fentanyl, or pressed into counterfeit pills (e.g., Norco, Percocet, Vicodin, etc.) or sedatives (Xanax) as a cheap additive to increase the effects of these drugs. When mixed with opioids and other central nervous system depressants, such as alcohol or sedatives, xylazine intensifies the effects, including sedation (drowsiness leading to unresponsiveness) and respiratory depression (slowed or stopped breathing), which can lead to a fatal overdose.

“Most people who are purchasing or being given illicit drugs are not seeking Xylazine and likely do not know that Xylazine may be present in the drugs they are trying to obtain.

Increased awareness of the risk of Xylazine in illicit opioids, counterfeit pills, stimulants, and other drugs not obtained from pharmacies is necessary to support overdose prevention and harm reduction.”

The best way to avoid dying from these drugs is not to take them, the department warns.

“The illicit drug supply has been commonly and unpredictably contaminated with lethal substances such as Xylazine and fentanyl,” it said, encouraging residents to “avoid using pills from any sources besides an FDA-licensed pharmacy and prescribed by your healthcare provider.”

The San Francisco Department of Public Health also issued an alert, saying “Xylazine has been found in the drug supplies in eastern regions of the U.S. for years, but this is the first time the drug has been identified in decedents in San Francisco. All cases also involved fentanyl.” It identified four overdose deaths in the last two years in which Xylazine was detected. So far this year, San Francisco hasn’t had any “recent reports of increased severity of wounds or syndromes consistent with Xylazine intoxication or withdrawal,” the alert states. “While this suggests the drug may not yet be prevalent in the local drug supply, SFDPH is working to understand the extent of Xylazine in the city and respond accordingly.” Xylazine, also dubbed “tranq,” is being investigated by the San Diego County medical examiner, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan told Fox 5 San Diego News.

“He is doing a four-month study,” she said. “Whenever there is a suspicious death due to an overdose from drugs, they are going to test for Xylazine to make sure that we are not missing a trend that’s here in San Diego, that we’re unaware of, so that we’re prepared for it.”

All of the warnings state that Naloxone/Narcan should still be administered for any suspected drug overdose because it helps restore breathing, but if Xyalzine is laced in the mix, Narcan may not fully restore consciousness.

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