Colorado drug bust includes elephant sedative
Three people recently arrested for carrying drugs in western Colorado had among their stash an opioid said to be 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more potent than fentanyl.
A Delta County Sheriff's Office deputy pulled over a vehicle on March 3 that was swerving over the lane stripes on Highway 50 west of Delta.
Another Delta deputy invited his K9 "Teg" to sniff the vehicle. The dog alerted to the presence of narcotics.
The deputies removed the three people from the car and searched it, finding approximately 1500 fentanyl pills, 50 grams of fentanyl powder, 12 grams of ecstacy pills, 454 grams of methamphetamine, and 21 grams of Carfentanil.
A 2016 Drug Enforcement Agency alert that was distributed by the U.S. Department of Justice described the drug as a synthetic opioid, like fentanyl, that is most commonly used as a tranquilizer for elephants and other large mammals. The alert was sent as a warning to law enforcement personnel and first responders.
"Carfentanil is surfacing in more and more communities." stated DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg in a press release. "We see it on the streets, often disguised as heroin. It is crazy dangerous."
Naxolone, the same emergency overdose treatment for fentanyl, was recommended as immediate treatment for any exposure to Carfentanil. Research about Carfentanil is scant, however, and the lethal dosage of Carfentanil to humans is not known.
The load of narcotics was within arms reach of all three people in the vehicle, as described in a Delta County Sheriff's Office press release.
The deputies arrested 27-year-old Nakisha Ramirez, 23-year-old Junior Rosales-Blanco, and 44-year-old Manuel Sepulveda. Ramirez and Rosales-Blanco are from Montrose. Sepulveda lives in Delta. All were charged with various counts of felony drug possession and intent to distribute drugs.
Rosales-Blanco, the driver, was given a $60,000 cash-only bond.
Sepulveda received an $80,000 bond. He has one other active felony case in Delta County for criminal mischief. However, online criminal records indicate he pleaded guilty in a 1998 Grand Junction homicide to 2nd Degree Murder and Att'd Murder, and received 35-year and 15-year prison sentences.
Ramirez, meanwhile, was handed a $100,000 bond. She faces several more felony charges than the men. She also has more recent criminal. In 2020, she had six felony cases in Delta and Montrose County. She was sentenced to the Colorado Department of Corrections in two of them, including a 10-year sentence for drugs that was handed down in 2021.
CBS Colorado is awaiting information from the DOC regarding the amount of this sentence which Ramirez served.
