Shipment of “zombie drug” seized in Utah
Oct 8, 2019, 7:06 PM | Updated: 7:21 pm
MAGNA – It’s a dangerous drug that police were hoping would never make it to Utah. However, officers say they intercepted a package of the so-called “zombie drug” in Salt Lake County.
On the streets, the drug is named Flakka and investigators say it’s similar to bath salts. It has been known to case serious hallucinations in people who use it. Investigators say it made a Florida man do the unthinkable after he reportedly killed two people.
“Back in Florida, we had the male that was eating off someone’s face,” according to Unified Police Sergeant Melody Gray.
The drug used to be known as alpha PVP, and Gray says the government tried to make it much harder to make.
Gray says, “One of the chemicals was banned, so what they did is they changed [the recipe] a little.” She also says the new version of the drug is just as dangerous as the original.
As far as Gray knows, this could be the first time Flakka has been seized in Utah. Their office got a tip from the Department of Homeland Security, claiming someone in Magna was buying a shipment of the drug from the Netherlands through the dark web.
“[Officers] were able to get a search warrant and serve a search warrant on the home in Magna where they retrieved that drug,” Gray says.
Police also found meth and THC, but Gray says no arrests were made.
Given how dangerous the drug is, Gray says you would think people would know to stay away from it, but, that’s not the case.
She says, “I don’t know if people think they’re not going to receive those [side] effects. That’s really the only explanation I’ve been able to come up with why some people use these drugs, is they think it’s not going to happen to them.”
