Rocky Mountain High: Utah “Absolutely…

While fentanyl arrests have declined in Wyoming so far this year, seizures are skyrocketing in neighboring southern border states as a deadlier form of methamphetamine gains traction across the state.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency saw a record number of fentanyl seizures in Utah in June, up nearly 17 percent from the previous year.

The arrests were part of the DEA’s Operation Cash Out, which aims to expand its ground operations while also targeting drug profits leaving the country.

This year, the DEA has already seized a record 3.6 million fentanyl pills (through the first quarter of 2024) and is on track to surpass the previous record, said Steffan Tubbs, public affairs specialist for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s Rocky Mountain Division.

Wyoming is one of four states in this division, along with Utah, Colorado, and Montana.

Utah has “absolutely shattered” its record for fentanyl seizures so far this year, Tubbs said, adding that the agency has seized a record 774,000 fentanyl pills in the state, compared to 664,200 pills last year.

Colorado is also on track to match its 2023 record of 2.61 million fentanyl pills seized. This year alone, 1.8 million pills have been seized, with four months to go.

“We’re definitely on a trend here to easily break Colorado’s record of 2.6 million last year,” Tubbs said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we surpass 3 million pills seized in Colorado this year.

Wyoming lags behind

Meanwhile, Wyoming still lags behind in attacks compared to last year.

The agency has collected 4,000 fentanyl pills compared to 23,700 last year, according to DEA data. In Montana, the numbers are also down, with 40,000 fentanyl pills seized compared to last year’s record of 106,500 pills.

Tubbs declined to say how many DEA agents have been sent to Wyoming, nor did he provide details about how the operation is being conducted in the state.

The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation also reported a slight decrease in fentanyl arrests, said DCI Commander Ryan Cox.

Last year, DCI counted 114 fentanyl arrests, according to agency figures, up from 63 the year before. In August, DCI counted 72 fentanyl-specific arrests.

Scott McWilliams, deputy director of DCI’s state crime lab, said they are still seeing an increase in drug samples testing positive for fentanyl, but it is “much less dramatic” than in years past.

One drug that continues to show no signs of slowing down is methamphetamine. This drug is also produced and smuggled across the border by drug cartels.

“Methamphetamines still appear to be quite potent, and may be filling some of the void where fentanyl is declining,” McWilliams said.

While the number of fentanyl seizures may be down slightly, the number of arrests overall has increased again this year, Cox noted.

No way to quantify

Tubbs said the explosive increase in arrests in Wyoming’s border states could be behind the downward trend in both Wyoming and Montana, but there is no way to quantify it.

“So far in 2024, our seizure numbers (in Wyoming) are certainly down, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s time to celebrate fentanyl slowly disappearing from the highways, streets or roads of Wyoming, because it’s not,” Tubbs said.

It is certainly likely that the agency is tracking fentanyl along major distribution routes destined for distribution in Wyoming, Tubbs said.

The figures are difficult to trust, because one major arrest can significantly influence the figures.

“It can change in the blink of an eye,” he said.

Billion dollar industry

Fentanyl is a multibillion-dollar industry for Mexican cartels, with the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels responsible for the majority of sales in the Rocky Mountain region and the rest of the U.S., Tubbs said.

Legal fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that has a legitimate medical purpose when prescribed by doctors to treat pain, primarily after surgery. It is about 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the DEA.

Illicit fentanyl, on the other hand, is produced in secret laboratories, mainly in Mexico, and then smuggled into the US to be sold on the illegal drug market.

Tubbs said the labs are unsanitary and unregulated. DEA agents have even seen labs set up in bathrooms and cow pastures.

Illicit fentanyl can be sold as a powder or nasal spray, but is most often made into counterfeit pills disguised as blue “M30” oxycodone pills. These pills contain unknown amounts of fentanyl that are often lethal.

Even 2 milligrams, or roughly a few grains of sugar, can be deadly. Given the lack of oversight over production, each pill can vary wildly in fentanyl content.

A DEA lab test found that seven out of 10 seized pills contained lethal doses of fentanyl.

According to the DEA, it is still the deadliest drug in the United States and the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.

Meth overdoses on the rise

That said, the meth smuggled across the border, particularly by the Sinaloa cartel, is contributing to a sharp increase in meth-related poisoning deaths, which are quickly surpassing fentanyl overdose deaths.

There were 123 overdose deaths in Wyoming last year, according to Wyoming Department of Health spokesperson Kim Deti. Of those deaths, 81 involved opioids, 52 involved fentanyl and 49 involved meth.

This number is higher than the 98 overdoses in 2022, of which 81 were related to opioids, followed by fentanyl with 56 and 50 to methamphetamine.

As Tubbs noted, these deaths are merely collateral damage for the cartels, whose only interest is to profit from drug sales.

For the love of money

“This is all happening for one reason: money,” Tubbs said. “End of sentence. End of story.”

The cartels’ goal is to get people hooked. They don’t care how many people they kill. Because for every person who dies, 10 to 20 others get hooked, he said.

“Cartels have no value for human life and that is the price you pay for doing business, which is simply pathetic,” he said.

Tubbs said it’s safe to say there is a cartel presence in Wyoming, including Indian reservations in the Rocky Mountain region. As Tubbs noted, Wyoming is a lucrative market because the pills get more expensive the further north you go.

Cartels, for example, make the pills for a few cents a pill. That same pill can then be sold in bulk for 60 cents in Tucson, Arizona or El Paso, Texas. The price rises to $5 a pill or less in Salt Lake City or Denver. By the time it reaches Wyoming, that same pull can be sold for $30 or $40.

The cost of reservations can be even higher. Tubbs has heard stories of illegal fentanyl pills being sold for as much as $60 to $100 on reservations.

“You can understand why they (the cartels) don’t worry about who they kill because the money is astronomical,” he said.

Touch the sensitive spot

Given the high profit margins, Operation Cash Out also targets the money transfer offices and financial institutions that enable the cartels to smuggle laundered drug money out of the country.

According to the Mexican Central Bank, more than $63 billion in remittances were sent to Mexico in 2023, 96% of which came from the US.

Tubbs said it’s impossible to determine what percentage of that money came from drug sales, but the dollar amount is manageable.

“All they care about is their money,” said David Olesky, acting special agent in charge of the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Field Division. “This interagency operation is designed to target the networks and seize their assets by building stronger relationships with the private sector financial community.”

Jen Kocher can be reached at [email protected].