Denver metro area seen as distribution point for fentanyl
Taking fentanyl can be deadly. Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office body camera video shows a woman lying on the floor as deputies responded to a call last December.
"She's right here on the ground," the person answering the door told the deputy.
That deputy replied, "What did she take?"
A male in the room responds, "She was drinking and she took one of the blue pills, the fentanyl pills they are all taking nowadays."
One pill nearly killed that woman. That is a tiny drop in the bucket of the supply coming into the area.
A total of 114 pounds of fentanyl powder were seized from a car at I-70 near Georgetown headed towards Denver according to DEA special agent in charge Brian Besser, who referred to the drug is like a weapon of mass destruction.
"One hundred and 14 pounds... what does that mean? Well, DEA estimates that one kilogram which is 2.2 pounds can kill up to 500,000 people if lethal doses are ingested."
The drug haul was headed to Denver, what they describe as the crossroads of the west for fentanyl traffic.
Arapahoe DEA John Kellner told reporters at a news conference, "The Denver metro area is seen as a distribution point for the rest of the country at least for this region."
Fentanyl kills. Often without the person being aware of where it originated or if it was infused into a different drug.
Arapahoe County Sheriff Tyler Brown told CBS4 the fentanyl problem is terrible, "Our concern is getting the people the treatment that we need and part of it is cutting off the supply and that's what we have today."
It has gotten so bad people are using cell phone emojis to make drug deals stay completely anonymous.
Besser says tracking drug deals has changed, "Keep in mind this entire transaction from advertisement to purchase takes a matter of seconds, not minutes, seconds that's what we are seeing."
This makes busts like this even more meaningful to prevent more scenes.
The woman lying on the floor in Arapahoe County survived after Narcan was administered.