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Nebraska Police Seize Enough Fentanyl To Kill 26 Million People

Nebraska Police Seize Enough Fentanyl To Kill 26 Million People

State trooped discovered a gigantic haul of fentanyl stashed in a tractor-trailer. It is the biggest drugs bust the state has ever seen.

Paddy Maddison

Paddy Maddison

Police in Nebraska, USA, have seized 118lbs of pure fentanyl, making it one of the largest seizures in the country's history - enough to kill more than 26 million people, according to government estimates.

Nebraska State Patrol troopers discovered the drugs being transported in a tractor trailer during a traffic stop on 26 April, but at the time suspected most of the powder to be cocaine.

However, on Thursday, police said the Nebraska State Patrol's crime laboratory found the substance was actually entirely fentanyl, making it the largest drug bust in the state's history, worth an estimated $20million (£15,028,500).

Nebraska State Patrol

Troopers conducted a search the vehicle and discovered a false compartment in the empty trailer. On further inspection, the compartment was found to contain 42 foil-wrapped packages, containing 118lbs of a substance that turned out to be fentanyl.

Felipe Genao-Minaya, 46, and Nelson Nunez, 52, were both arrested for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. They were later taken to Buffalo County Jail.

Nebraska State Patrol

The DEA says that these sorts of large-scale drug seizures save lives. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that fentanyl, and variants of it, killed more than 20,000 Americans last year - a number which is still on the rise.

According to the DEA's website, Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid and a very powerful aesthetic (30-50 times more potent than heroin and 50-100 times more potent than morphine). It's most often used to treat patients who are already taking other opioids to relieve chronic pain, such as pain brought on by cancer.

Nebraska State Patrol

However, the drug can also be used recreationally and poses a high risk of addiction.

The body responds to repeated doses of opioids by desensitising the receptors. This means that more drugs need to be taken in order to achieve the same level of pain relief, when taken for medical reasons, or to achieve the same high when used recreationally.

The DEA pins the blame on China and Mexico as the 'major source countries' where fentanyl is manufactured in labs before being distributed around the world for illegal use.

A lot of illegal fentanyl is thought to be entering the United States from overseas through the U.S. Postal Service, which handles around 1.3 million packages coming into the country each day.

Featured Image Credit: Nebraska State Patrol

Topics: News, US News, crime, Drugs