Alameda County fentanyl bust seizes more than 92 pounds
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- Alameda County sheriff deputies and their partners at the narcotics task force have seized about 92 pounds of illicit fentanyl at locations in Oakland and Hayward, authorities announced Saturday morning.
"That's 42,000 grams that were headed for the streets of the Bay Area," the agency tweeted. "This is a glimpse of the fentanyl epidemic."
The sheriff's office Twitter post Saturday morning included photos of tables overflowing with bags of fentanyl pills and powder. Alameda County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly said the raids took place on Friday and uncovered a major fentanyl manufacturing lab. One suspect was arrested and a second remained at large.
"These guys are out there working hard every day to get drugs off the street," said Gina McDonald. "Alameda County sheriff saved my life ten years ago. I was in a meth-induced psychosis running around the streets here in Alameda County."
McDonald has lived in the East Bay her entire life and she recently co-founded the group Mothers Against Drug Deaths in the Bay Area. As someone who recovered from her own struggles with other substances, she knows the devastating impact drugs can have.
"Ten years ago Fentanyl wasn't as prevalent in the drug supply so I survived," she told KPIX. "I was delusional, I thought people were following me. I was taking apart electronics."
For more than a year, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies have been targeting a major pipeline of fentanyl from East Bay dealers into San Francisco, particularly the city's troubled Tenderloin neighborhood.
"My daughter is an addict who is currently in treatment but she was out there buying her drugs on the street," McDonald said.
She says that, in her work as an advocate to protect teens, she hears about drugs bought in San Francisco that are making their way to the East Bay.
It's especially concerning for her because even a small amount of fentanyl can be deadly. As she helps her daughter through treatment, McDonald is hopeful that the recovery is going well and she wants to do more to protect other children affected by this crisis.
"We formed this group. We thought 'enough is enough.' We heard from so many other people whose kids are out there," McDonald said. "We feel like we're just screaming into the abyss: 'Help these kids! Help these communities!' Drugs are spreading everywhere."
Overdose deaths have been on the rise in San Francisco and across the Bay Area. According to the DEA, one kilogram of fentanyl has the potential to kill 500,000 people. Friday's seizure was equal to 42 kilograms.
While it was not immediately known if there was any connection, the many tentacles of the pipeline was revealed by federal prosecutors who charged a pair of Berkeley teens Thursday with illegally selling fentanyl and methamphetamines in the Tenderloin.
U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds said 19-year-old David Ordonez and 18-year-old Juan Carlos Hernandez-Ordonez repeatedly traveled from their Berkeley home into San Francisco to allegedly deal narcotics in the open-air drug market in the 7th and Market Street area.
The feds say the two Berkeley teens allegedly engaged together in a conspiracy to distribute fentanyl in the Tenderloin from February 9 to March 29, 2022.
The complaint specifically describes five narcotics sales during this time period to undercover San Francisco police officers. In each sale, either Ordonez or Hernandez-Ordonez sold fentanyl or methamphetamine, and sometimes both, to an undercover officer.
The four counts in the federal complaint each carry the same minimum and maximum criminal penalties. The statutory penalty for each one of the counts is a minimum of five years of imprisonment and a maximum of 40 years of imprisonment and a maximum of a $5 million fine.
