(COLORADO) — Colorado has officially surpassed the previous record set in the state for fentanyl pills seized, totaling 2.7 million “fake pills” confiscated so far in 2024, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Rocky Mountain Field Division (DEA RMFD).
Adding to the grim milestone is the recent appearance of carfentanil in Colorado, described in a DEA RMFD press release sent on Tuesday, Dec. 3, as “an animal tranquilizer used to sedate or put down animals the size of elephants and rhinoceroses.”
In August, FOX21 News spoke with DEA RMFD Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Pullen, who said the previous record, which was set in 2023 was 2.61 million fentanyl pills seized in Colorado.
Courtesy: FOX21 News Photojournalist Cora Mitchell, Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Pullen, DEA’s Rocky Mountain Field Division.
“Fentanyl is in every community,” Pullen said previously. “It doesn’t matter what race you are, what ethnicity you are, whether you come from a good neighborhood or a bad neighborhood, what kind of car you drive—fentanyl is in your neighborhood.”
According to the DEA RMFD, the vast majority of fake pills coming into Colorado are made by Mexican drug cartels to look like Oxycodone pills and are commonly referred to as “blues.”
The photo shows a comparison between authentic Oxycodone pills (left) and counterfeit “M30s,” or “blues” (right) which show an “M” stamped on one side, and “30” for milligrams on the other.
“We continue to work day in, day out fighting the cartels putting this poison on Colorado streets,” Pullen said. “While we have seen seizure numbers trending lower in other parts of the country, Colorado seems to be consistently at or near record highs for the number of fake pills seized.”
According to the DEA, lab tests reveal that five out of every 10 pills analyzed contain a likely fatal dose of fentanyl for a first-time user. While this is down from seven in 10 pills in 2023, Pullen shared this message: “It’s not a time to celebrate the lethality going down across the country. There’s still a 50-50 chance you’ll die after taking just one of these pills. It’s a flip of a coin.”
According to Pullen, a deadly dose is just 2 milligrams of fentanyl, the same amount pictured below on the tip of that pencil.
Courtesy: DEA, 2mg, the amount on the tip of this pencil, can be enough to kill an average American.
“If you see a pill, if you obtain a pill and it’s not from your doctor or from a pharmacist, it is most certainly going to contain fentanyl, it is most certainly going to be deadly,” Pullen previously told FOX21.
Adding to the fentanyl crisis in Colorado is the recent discovery of carfentanil in the state. Last month, according to the DEA RMFD, “a seizure of 250,000+ pills was determined to contain carfentanil,” which is 100 times more potent than fentanyl.
“While it took Colorado 11 months to break last year’s record pill seizures, Utah broke its pill
seizure record (668,000) in the first six months this year (774,000),” according to Tuesday’s press release. “Within the DEA Rocky Mountain Field Division, Wyoming and Montana have seen pill seizures trend lower over the course of 2024.”
Last year, with the four states combined and within the DEA RMFD, 3.4 million pills were seized.
To learn more about the fentanyl crisis in America, visit dea.gov/onepill.
