Deadly fentanyl is 'most serious drug threat' in US history and on the rise in Utah, DEA warns

SALT LAKE CITY — A record number of fentanyl pills were seized in Utah in 2023.

And through the first six months of 2024, that record has already been broken.

"Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat this country has ever faced. And unfortunately we're seeing an increase in that threat," U.S. Attorney for Utah Trina Higgins said Thursday. "We're seeing an increase in the amount of pills that are being trafficked into and through the state of Utah."

The Drug Enforcement Administration was joined Thursday by several local, state and federal law enforcers in Utah — including Higgins, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera and Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown — to give an update on the staggering number of fentanyl pills being seized in the state, and to again warn the public about buying pills off the street or online.

"If you're not getting prescription pills from your doctor or your pharmacist, they are likely going to contain fentanyl and they are likely going to kill you," warned Jonathan Pullen, special agent in charge for the DEA's Rocky Mountain Field Division.

Approximately 664,200 pills containing fentanyl were seized in Utah last year. He says officers have seized more than 774,000 fentanyl pills already this year, just in the first nearly six months. Tests conducted in DEA labs showed that 7 out of every 10 pills being sold on the street contain a deadly dose of fentanyl, Pullen said.

The leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45 is drug overdose, with 70% of those deaths caused by fentanyl poisoning, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Part of the problem, Pullen said, is that taking a pill has become the norm for most Americans.

"We all take some type of pill, it's so ingrained in our society, it's so normal, which is why this threat continues to be so deadly across America. Because taking a pill, for all of us, is the easiest thing we do nowadays," he said.

But fentanyl pills — which are typically blue and have "M30" stamped on them to give the appearance of a legitimate pain killer — look exactly like a normal pharmaceutical, Pullen said. Furthermore, the pills can be purchased anywhere.

"This is not a 'bad part of town' issue. These are in nice neighborhoods. These are in malls. These are everywhere you go," Pullen said.

Many teenagers and college-age people will typically use social media to buy pills, such as Oxycontin or Xanax. But Pullen says this is where the problem starts because those pills they are purchasing are often marketed as being something other than fentanyl.

"We've even seen apps where you show up at a mall and you see everybody else who's on the app in the mall, and then somebody has a menu of his drugs. It'll have Percocet, Xanax, oxys, on his menu (with prices)," he said. "They're all illicit. They're all fake. And they all almost certainly contain fentanyl."

The Sinaloa and Jalisco drug cartels are the main sources of fentanyl in the United States, according to the DEA. And Pullen says they don't regulate how much fentanyl they put into a single pill. He says it's like a person making chocolate chip cookies at home.

"Some of the cookies are going to come out with 10 chocolate chips in them. Some might only have one chocolate chip in them. That's the way they're going to mix this fentanyl. These aren't made in a pharmaceutical-grade lab. When they mix it, one of these pills may have only one little tiny speck of fentanyl in it, and anybody can take it and it won't kill you. But one of these is going to have 10 chocolate chips worth of fentanyl in it and as soon as you take it, even a hardcore user, you're going to die on the spot," he said.

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