SAN FRANCISCO — Authorities near San Francisco say they seized nearly 100 pounds of illicit fentanyl worth over $4 million, blocking it from being sold on streets across the Bay Area.
“This is a glimpse of the fentanyl epidemic,” the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office said in a tweet Saturday that showed a picture of the drugs in dozens of baggies after being seized.
Sheriff’s detectives with partners from the county Narcotics Task Force discovered a fentanyl manufacturing lab Friday after serving two search warrants in the cities of Oakland and Hayward, said Lt. Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the sheriff's office.
Detectives seized 92.5 pounds (42 kilograms) of illicit fentanyl and arrested one suspect, Kelly said. Authorities are searching for a second suspect.
The street value of fentanyl is about $100 per gram, putting the haul's value at about $4.2 million, Kelly said.
“That’s 42,000 grams that were headed for the streets of the Bay Area,” the Sheriff’s Office said in its tweet.
Drug trafficking organizations typically distribute fentanyl by the kilogram, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says on its website. One kilogram has the potential to kill 500,000 people. The DEA says that just 2 milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal depending on a person’s body size, tolerance and past usage.
