A New Jersey woman was arrested this week after federal agents and New York City police officers found fentanyl packaged like candy and stored in LEGO boxes in her car.
The woman, Letitia Bush, was arrested on Sept. 28 when agents and police officers stopped her vehicle in the Lincoln Tunnel. The vehicle allegedly contained 15,000 “multicolored” pills and had an estimated street value of $300,000, according to WPVI.
Reportedly, Bush was in the backseat of the vehicle when police and agents showed up. She had two black tote bags and a yellow LEGO container. Inside the LEGO container were “brick shaped” packages covered in black tape next to LEGO blocks. Inside the black-taped packages contained the “rainbow” fentanyl pills, which were reportedly imprinted with “30 M” to resemble 30mg oxycodone hydrochloride pills.
New York City’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan warned that the pills “look like candy” and began showing up on the West Coast earlier this year.
Frank Tarentino, the special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Division said that the pills are similar-looking to “party drugs” and are “everywhere.”
"Rainbow fentanyl is a clear and present danger and it is here in New York City," Tarentino said to Fox 5. "Approximately forty percent of the pills we analyze in our lab contain a lethal dose."
Brennan added that “using happy colors to make a deadly drug seem fun and harmless is a new low, even for the Mexican cartels."
“This is treacherous deception to market rainbow fentanyl-like candy,” Tarentino said. “This is every parent’s worst nightmare, especially in the month of October as Halloween fast approaches.”
On Sept. 28, two people were also arrested in Oregon during a traffic stop. During a search of the vehicle, a trooper located six hidden bundles of fentanyl powder. The driver and the passenger, both from Tuscon, Arizona, were in possession of enough fentanyl to kill over 3 million people, Fox 12 reported.
Spencer reported last week that a bill that would permanently put fentanyl substances in schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act was blocked by 220 House Democrats. According to the DEA's info sheet on these kinds of drugs, "Synthetic opioids, especially those substances related in chemical structure to fentanyl, a potent opioid analgesic with approved medical use, have resulted in an unprecedented number of overdoses in the United States."
Last month, Townhall covered how a California middle schooler was arrested after bringing 150 fentanyl pills disguised as Percocet to school. The student’s pills caused a campus supervisor to overdose.
The supervisor came into contact with the drug when they searched the student’s belongings after they were involved in an altercation with another student at school. Police were en route to the school as the overdose occurred. Police who arrived on the scene administered Narcan to the supervisor, who survived.