ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The drug now recognized as the deadliest threat facing the U.S., fentanyl was seized in massive quantities across New Mexico and West Texas in 2022 according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Totaling up drug seizures across the DEA’s El Paso district, the agency says nearly 10 million deadly doses were seized last year.
According to the agency, the doses are enough to wipe out the entire population of the DEA’s El Paso district, which covers all of New Mexico and 17 Texas counties in the western portion of the state. New Mexico has a population of over 2.1 million people. In all, the DEA says 379 deadly fentanyl doses were seized in the entire U.S. in 2022.
Just two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a potentially deadly dose according to the DEA. That small amount is able to fit on the tip of a pencil. The DEA says lab testing last year found that six out of ten fentanyl-laced pills contained potentially lethal doses. In 2021, just four of ten pills were found to contain deadly doses.
In New Mexico and West Texas, the DEA’s El Paso division says it seized more than 2.8 million fentanyl pills in 2022, representing 261 pounds of drugs. More than 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder across 50.6 million fentanyl-laced pills were sized by the DEA in 2022 across the U.S.
DEA’s El Paso Division also seized more than 34-hundred pounds of methamphetamine, 91 pounds of heroin, and 18-hundred pounds of cocaine in 2022.
