Over 3,500 Suspected Fake Fentanyl Pills Seized In Two Busts In Arizona
Fentanyl pills seized in Buckeye, Arizona
Source: Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office
Test results are still pending for two suspected fentanyl pill busts in Arizona, but here is a quick look at two recent cases that have taken thousands of potentially deadly fake fentanyl pills off the streets:
According to AZCentral, The Maricopa County Drug Suppression Task Force arrested three men on August 17th after an almost three-month investigation. Police arrested Abraham Oliveros-Suarez, Armando Oliveros, and Rodrigo Valdez after the trio met with undercover detectives in Buckeye to conduct a drug deal. Inside the vehicle the three men arrived in, police found illicit drugs, including 519 counterfeit pills that the police suspect are made with fentanyl, cash, and a weapon. A press release issued by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office mentioned that additional pills were found after a house in town was searched by the Buckeye Police SWAT team.
The second case waiting on test results involves 3,000 suspected counterfeit fentanyl pills seized from a vehicle in the parking lot of the El Con Center in Tucson. As reported by Tucson.com, Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested three people, though only one name is known at this time: Irving Gerardo Valenzuela-Rojo. Agents observed Valenzuela-Rojo place items within the center console of a vehicle parked next to his. When agents searched the console, they found six plastic bags that contained 3,000 “small, round blue pills” and weighed nearly a pound. In the Criminal Complaint, it says that the pills had an “M” inside a square on one side and the number “30” on the other. “The HSI agents involved have made seizures in the recent past of the exact same type of pill, and each time, the pills have tested positive for fentanyl.”
Arizona is one of the 44 states in which PSM has documented counterfeit fentanyl pills being found it. It is also one of the 26 states in which people have died because of these fake pills. To learn more about counterfeit drugs in Arizona, please read its 2018 Infosheet.