After a month-long investigation, authorities have arrested a Nashville man for being in possession of 15,000 pills which had been laced with fentanyl.
According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) the pills were enough to kill roughly 150,000 people.
Murfreesboro PD detectives and TBI drug agents received a tip back in June about an individual distributing fake Roxicodone pills as part of a drug trafficking organization.
The man who was arrested was identified by investigators as Angel Troche.
Here’s what TBI said in a press release:
“During the course of the investigation, and with the assistance of the Metro Nashville Police Department and Drug Enforcement Administration, agents and detectives identified Angel Troche as the individual in possession of the fentanyl-laced pills.”
More details of this report from ‘The Daily Caller’:
“using the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) metric that 1 kilogram of fentanyl is enough to potentially kill 500,000 people, the 300 grams could be enough to kill nearly 150,000 people.”
“The number of fentanyl-laced pills confiscated could have killed thousands of people. Our goal is preventing deaths and these types of joint operations, not only save lives but put the pill pushers behind bars,” the Murfreesboro Police Department told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Troche has now been charged with one count of Possession of Fentanyl over 300 grams. He was booked into the Rutherford County Jail on a $150,000 bond.
According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50-100 times stronger than morphine.
“Fentanyl is added to heroin to increase its potency, or be disguised as highly potent heroin. Many users believe that they are purchasing heroin and actually don’t know that they are purchasing fentanyl – which often results in overdose deaths. Clandestinely-produced fentanyl is primarily manufactured in Mexico,” the agency’s fact-sheet on the drug explains.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, overdoses involving synthetic opioids other than methadone (primarily fentanyl) were the cause of 56,516 deaths reported in 2020.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody sent Biden a letter requesting fentanyl to be labelled as a “Weapon of Mass Destruction.”
“Border patrol has seized enough fentanyl to kill the entire American population many times over. With that in mind, and the recent mass overdose events in Hillsborough and Gadsden counties, I am demanding President Biden classify illicit fentanyl as a Weapon of Mass Destruction.”
“The federal government already works to disrupt the supply chains of other chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons — it’s not hard to imagine that similar tactics could be used to reduce the flow of illicit fentanyl into the U.S. through cartels in Mexico — and save countless American lives,” Moody added.
Sources: TheGatewayPundit, The Daily Caller, National Institute on Drug Abuse, TBI
