Deputies in Oregon made the largest fentanyl bust in their county history last week, seizing tens of thousands of pills and powder packed into gallon-sized plastic bags, authorities said.
The bust happened Tuesday as investigators were watching a wanted person in Portland's Goose Hollow neighborhood, the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office said. Deputies took the person into custody "at the opportune time" after watching him walk to a vehicle.
Deputies with the sheriff’s Special Investigations Unit obtained a search warrant for the individual’s car and apartment, finding gallon-sized plastic bags stuffed with fentanyl pills and fentanyl powder, a manual-operated pill press, a commercial grade pill press, $5,000 in cash and a stolen handgun, the sheriff's office said.
The bags held approximately 58,000 individual fentanyl pills and 16 pounds of fentanyl powder, according to authorities.
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Deputies determined that 10 of the 16 pounds of powder was ready to be pressed into an estimated 50,000 pills using the machines. The remaining six pounds of powder, which would have yielded about 30,000 additional pills, was meant to be sold in powder form, officials said.
In total, deputies estimate that their effort prevented approximately 138,000 pills from hitting Portland-area streets. The combined street value of the seizure was estimated to be between $320,000 and $400,000.
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Officials said that six out of 10 pills seized contained a potentially lethal 2 milligram dose of fentanyl.
The identity of the individual was not immediately released due to investigative reasons, the sheriff’s office said.
The bust comes just one year after the agency’s last historic fentanyl bust, when deputies seized 92,000 fentanyl pills and other drugs during a coordinated traffic stop in Clackamas County.
