Inside a DEA drug vault where seized fentanyl pills are stored

(NEXSTAR) — The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) plays a critical role in the fight against fentanyl. When agents seize drugs, the evidence is sent to a DEA lab for testing. The agency reports that more than 70 percent of seized illegal drugs are laced with fentanyl.

All drugs seized by federal agencies from five states are sent to a DEA lab in Dallas, Texas for testing.

“Our vault processes it and stores it until it’s time for our forensic chemist to analyze it. And our forensic chemists determine the content of the evidence, and sometimes the purity of the evidence,” said DEA Laboratory Assistant Director Jamie Vasquez.

According to Vasquez, the most commonly found drug is methamphetamine, followed by cocaine, fentanyl and heroin.

“It’s changed dramatically in the last five years. We’ve gone from submissions of 3% fentanyl to now almost 20% of what we see has some type of fentanyl in it,” Vasquez said.

The DEA serves as the first line of defense against drugs crossing the border.

“The key number is 70 percent. You have to understand that 70 percent of these pills right now could be fatal, it could be an overdose,” said DEA Special Agent Daniel Comeaux. “It’s all about money. It’s about the dollar bill. It’s about greed. And that’s what we’re going after.”

Comeaux, who works with the DEA’s Houston division, said drug cartels are producing synthetic fentanyl on a large scale with deadly precision.

“So, you could even have someone as young as a high school kid who says, well I’ve heard about the Xanax. So let me take the Xanax one time to get a high. And they take one of these fake pills, and they end up dead. 70 percent of these pills have a lethal dose,” Comeaux said.

Lab results from last year show the DEA seized 521,000 fentanyl tablets.

“Look, we’re aggressively targeting them. We’re doing it in so many different ways now. We’re going to websites. We’re going to social media. We’re going to all these apps. Wherever they are, we’re there now,” Comeaux said.

He urged parents to talk to their children about the dangers of fentanyl.

“Because it’s not necessarily a drug dealer that’s going to sell them this pill. It could be their best friend. It could be their peer. And if you don’t have those kinds of conversations with your kids, they might not think anything of it,” Comeaux said.