Massive Utah drug bust highlights magnitude of fentanyl supply pushed by cartels
Dec 14, 2023, 8:00 AM
An lethal dose of fentanyl is displayed on the point of a pencil for size reference, according to the Drug Enforcement Association. (DEA)
(DEA)
MOAB, Utah — A huge drug bust is shedding light on just how many dangerous pills are on Utah streets.
A remarkable 66 pounds of fentanyl pills were confiscated in a traffic stop in Grand County — just one of three drug bust we’ve reported on in the last week. Fentanyl, heroine and crack cocaine were found by police in Cottonwood Heights. In Kane County police seized another 100,000 fentanyl tablets, approximately 20 pounds.
Grand County Sheriff’s Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration report a massive spike in the fentanyl supply with cartels targeting younger and younger users.
“It’s crazy the numbers that are happening, I never thought we would see numbers like this,” said Sheriff Jamison Wiggins of the Grand County Sheriff’s Office.
The latest bust is Grand County’s biggest fentanyl bust of the year.
Grand County Sheriff’s Office said K9 officer Zora was instrumental in a massive drug bust in December, 2023. (DEA)
K-9 Zora, the newest member of the Grand County Sheriff’s Office, was on the job for a few days before she sniffed out more than 120 pounds of drugs including 36 pounds of meth, 19 pounds of cocaine, and 66.6 pounds of illicit fentanyl during a traffic stop on Monday.
“That is the most fentanyl I have ever seen in my career located inside of a vehicle,” Wiggins said.
He said it takes a small amount to overdose on fentanyl.
The GCSO has a new major crimes task force to deal with this type of crime.
“We’ve lost young kids before due to this fentanyl crisis and so we’re very committed to protecting not only are community but America because when these narcotics are coming through they are […] split up and going into other communities,” Wiggins said.
Deputies suspect the two people arrested, Jamie Verela, 49, and Andrea Mshel, 36, were heading to Denver. He said they are not Utah residents and were driving a truck with a Nevada license plate. A deputy pulled them over for a broken taillight.
According to the DEA, the quantity seized by Grand County deputies was enough to kill about 152,000 first-time users.
“It’s about 152,000 potential lethal doses of fentanyl from that one seizure. It’s a lot,” said Dustin Gillespie, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Rocky Mountain Field Division.
Gillespie said agents confiscated a total of 294,000 fentanyl pills throughout Utah last year, approximately the same amount discovered by deputies just on Monday.
“So [that] one seizure compared to what my DEA officers seized here in Utah last year, they almost matched it in one seizure,” Gillespie said. “That kind of gives you context for how big this was and the volume of drugs that are out there.”
