Fentanyl powder – so potent an addict can smuggle a gram into the jail and get a whole pod high, leading to detainees and guards overdosing.
That’s what happened at 9:45 a.m. May 6 in the San Juan County Detention Center. A detainee smuggled the powder into the facility and removed it “from inside her pants,” according to an incident report obtained by the Tri-City Record through an Inspection of Public Records Act request.
The report stated that five detainees in the C4 pod overdosed in less than an hour.
When Detention Center Officers Mike, Atcitty, Wagner and Soto conducted a search of the pod, three of them became ill and exhibited signs of overdose after finding “a piece of paper with a white powdery substance” located on a bunk, the report stated.
One of the officers who was “experiencing symptoms” had to be taken to San Juan Regional Medical Center for treatment, according to the report.
Fentanyl poses a “significant operational and occupational hazard” to correction officers, according to a May 21 report prepared by the New Mexico High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, NMHIDTA, Investigative Support Center.
“New Mexico first responders and correctional officers have recently been involved in several incidents where they were exposed to suspected illicit synthetic opioids related to fentanyl, resulting in adverse reactions to the exposures requiring medical attention,” the report said.
Law enforcement officers, EMS personnel, fire fighters and crime scene investigators also are at risk.
“We’re seeing fentanyl continue to rise in our county,” San Juan County Sheriff Shane Ferrari said, adding there has been an “increase in seizures.”
There’s also been changes to the types of fentanyl being produced by the Mexican Cartel, which Ferrari said is responsible for 90% of the drug being trafficked in the United States.
The cartel works to “continuously modify chemical structures to create new fentanyl,” according to the NMHIDTA report.
What was once blue pills has now become white powder.
“Now what’s scary is what they call powder fentanyl – that’s what we seen in the jail,” Ferrari said, adding it is easy to smuggle into the facility.
“You’re seeing all these addicts inside the jail going down. You can smuggle in a gram of powdered fentanyl and get a whole pod high,” Ferrari said.
The highly potent powder is incredibly dangerous, with exposure coming from acts as simple as opening envelopes to handling contaminated currency, according to the NMHIDTA report.
When the powder is “disturbed,” there also is a potential threat of airborne hazard, the report stated.
Jail booking and intake was listed as a high-risk activity when it comes to potential fentanyl exposure, and the report warns individuals to “treat unknown powders as hazardous.”
The three detention center officers, who were exposed to fentanyl powder, were back at work on May 7, according to the detention center report, but the risk remains.
“The proliferation of fentanyl and fentanyl analogues has transformed routine enforcement encounters into potential hazardous-material incidents. First responders must shift from a traditional narcotics mindset to a drug-threat/hazmat hybrid response posture,” according to the NMHIDTA report.
And fentanyl is not going away, according to Ferrari, who said “fentanyl is just climbing.”
“Everyday people are becoming fentanyl addicts,” Ferrari said. This stemmed from the opioid crisis. “Now your soccer mom is into heroin. She started out on Lortab for a toothache and is now a heroin addict.”
Ferrari added, “The cartel already had addicts sitting, waiting on them.”
dmayeux@tricityrecordnm.com
