8,800 Potentially Lethal Doses Of Fentanyl Found At School Crossing

NEW PORT RICHEY, FL — It was one of those fluke discoveries that may have saved the lives of nearly 9,000 drug users.

The New Port Richey Police Department's code enforcement unit was assisting crossing guards with their duties at Madison Street and Cecelia Drive on Sept. 21 when they noticed a person asleep behind a wheel at the intersection.

When officers investigated, they saw that the sleeping driver was holding a large bag of white powder on his lap. The powder later tested positive for a mixture of cocaine and fentanyl.

After awakening the driver, police searched the car and discovered 1,805.95 grams of methamphetamine (almost 4 pounds), 106.89 grams of cocaine and 17.60 grams of fentanyl.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, 2 mg of fentanyl is considered a potentially lethal dose.

That translated to 8,800 potentially lethal doses of fentanyl confiscated by New Port Richey police.

The New Port Richey fentanyl bust came the same day Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and the Clay County Sheriff's Office shut down a fentanyl trafficking operation that had been distributing the drug to dealers in Clay and Duval counties.

In that operation, the Clay sheriff's office seized more than 8.35 kilograms of fentanyl, or 4.18 million potentially fatal doses, the equivalent of the populations of Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Duval, Flagler, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Lake, Levy, Marion, Nassau, Putnam, Seminole, St. Johns, Union and Volusia counties combined, said Moody.

"Fentanyl is killing Americans at a record pace, and these drug traffickers compiled enough of this deadly synthetic opioid to kill everyone within 18 counties of their criminal operation," she said. "Thankfully, working with the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, we were able to take these deadly drugs off the streets before they could kill Floridians.”

During the investigation, law enforcement discovered the drug traffickers were using the U.S. Postal Service to send fentanyl to Florida from California.

See related stories:

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• 7 People Collapse In Tampa After Taking Drug Containing Fentanyl

Fed up with the mounting death toll, on Sept. 15, Moody and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong announced they are leading a multistate, bipartisan effort of 18 attorneys general in urging President Joe Biden to classify fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.

Moody said the request is based on the fact that the drug is claiming a record number of lives across the country and continues to flow freely through the southwest border.

In July alone, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 2,100 pounds of the substance, enough potentially fatal doses to cause nearly half a billion fatal overdoses.

During a security briefing with former federal drug officials, Families Against Fentanyl and law enforcement leaders, Moody said, due to the prevalence and low cost of producing fentanyl, there is the potential for the drug to be weaponized.

“I first called for President Biden to take swift action in July and call fentanyl what it is—a weapon of mass destruction. Now, I am leading a bipartisan coalition of 18 attorneys general demanding the president take action now, declare fentanyl a WMD and join us in our fight to prevent the death and destruction caused by this highly-lethal substance from getting even worse," she said.

More than 75,000 Americans died from overdoses of synthetic opioids, mainly fentanyl, in the 12-month period ending in February.

Moody said the drug is so toxic that it even poses serious risks to those simply exposed to it.

During a mass overdose in March involving several West Point Cadets vacationing in South Florida, two people were hospitalized after performing CPR on those who overdosed.

Moody and Tong are joined by the attorneys general of Arkansas, Guam, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.