Four Honduran nationals were arrested after being caught selling large doses of fentanyl in the United States.
Undercover agents apprehended Selvin Ponce-Maradiaga, Sammy Maradiaga-Escoto, Hector Rosales-Martinez, and Elvin Irias-Escoto this week in Washington as they attempted to sell enough fentanyl to kill 1.6 million people.
The arrests happened during a drug trafficking deal when the illegal immigrants tried to sell the deadly drug to undercover Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents. The fentanyl was being sold in pill and powder form.
The suspects were carrying “15 packages of just over 15 kilograms of fentanyl powder,” a firearm, and “60,000 fentanyl pills, another kilogram of fentanyl powder, and multiple boxes of ammunition.”
“[T]his amount of fentanyl represented over 1.6 million potentially lethal doses,” David F. Reames, Special Agent in Charge, DEA Seattle Field Division said in a statement.
The arrest marked the fourth case against 14 defendants who allegedly have been trafficking large quantities of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine base, and cocaine in San Francisco.
From April 15 to 21, over 1.1 million fentanyl pills and 523 pounds of methamphetamine were apprehended by the state’s National Guard’s Counterdrug Task Force, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Fentanyl overdoses in the U.S. have increased since President Joe Biden took office due to his reckless open-border policies that have resulted in more than 7.3 million illegal immigrants entering the country.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) revealed that CalGuard seized more than a million fentanyl pills in February— including almost 600,000 pills at the southern border. This included more than a million other deadly drugs that were seized across the southern border in just one week.
“Through unified efforts, we send a clear message to drug traffickers: we will relentlessly pursue you, disrupt your operations, and safeguard our communities from the devastating impact of illicit substances,” Tobin Meyer, Commander of the Skagit County Interlocal Drug Enforcement Unit (SCIDEU) said.