Cibola’s War on Drugs

CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. – One year ago, the Cibola Citizen took a deep dive into the epidemic of Fentanyl in Cibola County. Since our first report over the crisis, the situation has only grown worse.

Over the last week, Cibola was reminded about the danger of drugs that these law enforcement officers work so diligently to stop. There were four overdoses across Cibola County this past week. Three of the victims were saved thanks to a powerful tool called Narcan, one victim did not survive the overdose. Law enforcement are convinced that a “bad batch” of drugs were responsible for the overdoses.

Drug searches and seizures are not an uncommon occurrence throughout Cibola County, which boasts Interstate 40, a road better known as the Drug Corridor. Law enforcement from across the county have been working on drug interdiction and takedowns in an effort to keep the streets clean; in this effort, they have picked up hundreds of pounds of different narcotics this year alone. Despite the work done by the police departments, there are still large quantities of drugs that make their way to the streets; one of these drugs that is ravaging Cibola County and the rest of the country is Fentanyl.

On the front lines of this war against drugs are the men and women behind the badge, Cibola County Sheriff’s Deputies, Grants Police officers, Milan Police officers, Laguna and Acoma Police officers, New Mexico State Police officers, and federal partners who help survey and bring down drug traffickers on I-40 and across the county.

Law enforcement across Cibola claim that these overdoses were all related, and that a bad batch of drugs, tainted with Fentanyl, was responsible.

What is Fentanyl?

For too many, Fentanyl is not an uncommon term, for those unfamiliar with the drug, it is a syn-thetic opioid. A synthetic opioid is any substance developed in a laboratory that can pretend to be natural chemicals in an effort to create an analgesic – or pain killing – effect. Common opioids consist of Hydrocodone, Oxycodone, Oxymorphine, Morphine, and Codeine. These are drugs often sick or dying, and their intent, much like with Fentanyl, is to provide a temporary release from pain, according to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration and the National Institute of Health.

According to Sergeant Joe Galindo with the Milan Police Department, Fentanyl is often referred to as “The Blues” or just “Blues” and has become the most common drug law enforcement officers in Cibola have been dealing with.

A recent uptick of Fentanyl overdoses in the area have been worrying to Cibola County Sheriff Tony Mace, who said, “You can overdose on Fentanyl, a grain of this stuff on your hands is enough to kill you.” The danger of the drug has changed how police officers handle drug search and seizures, forcing new technology to be developed that makes accidental exposure of Fentanyl and other opioids unlikely.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid much like Morphine, but a single dose of Fentanyl can be 50 to 100 times stronger and more potent than Morphine. According to data from the DEA, Fentanyl’s much stronger sister, Carefentanil, is 10,000 times stronger than Morphine, and about 100 times stronger than Fentanyl, local police agencies have not reported many incidents of Carefentanil trafficking. According to the DEA, two milligrams of fentanyl is enough to knock out an average sized adult elephant.

According to the US National Security Agency’s Fentanyl Working Group, one kilogram – or roughly 2.2 pounds of Fentanyl costs $32,000 to make, with a street value of $20 million.

Sheriff Mace explained that Fentanyl is often prescribed to cancer patients and others with life-ending diseases, this is because it helps these patients to deal with the pain of their illness. Due to its medical uses, Fentanyl is developed in different ways – from lozenges to patches, IVs and pill form; the drug is now being marketed as other opioids.

Mainstream opioids like Oxycodone and Hydrocodone are being sold to unsuspecting buyers who are unaware that the pills they just purchased are mixed with Fentanyl. A buyer could potentially purchase a lethal amount of Fentanyl when trying to purchase a different opioid, this is what makes Fentanyl so dangerous.

Sheriff Mace explained that Fentanyl is, when prescribed by an actual doctor, effective at treating illness and making patients more comfortable. When prescribed by what he called “a street-level pharmacist,” the drug goes from being a resource to a fatal instrument.

“Fentanyl looks identical to Oxy,” Sheriff Mace explained, “When people go to buy Oxy, they’re actually being given Fentanyl.” The sheriff then explained how the drug is making its way into Cibola County, information he discovered in the last year when working with Congresswoman Yvette Herrell (R – NM02) on the southern border with Mexico. “China supplies the cartels with Fentanyl and pill presses [A pill or tablet press takes powdered drugs and presses them into a pill form.], since a number of states are legalizing marijuana, the cartels can’t make any money off it. So, instead, they’re taking pills like Oxys, cutting them with Fentanyl, and selling them like that.”

“Street-level pharmacists” are killing their customers when they cut the Fentanyl into lesser drugs, Sheriff Mace explained. When they peddle their counterfeit opioids to the unsuspecting who are looking for an opioid with a much weaker effect, they risk overdosing the buyer. Fentanyl is so much cheaper to access and easy to pass off as other opioids that the cartels and drug dealers are making more people into addicts and causing the overdose death of users.

Bad Batch of Drugs

Sgt. Galindo explained that drug dealers are adding fentanyl to other drugs because it can increase their potency.

Accidental Fentanyl overdoses in Cibola County do occur. Sheriff Mace said that even marijuana purchased from non-dispensary dealers could be laced with fentanyl. So far, no law enforcement office in Cibola County has seen marijuana-laced Fentanyl.

Other drugs, especially Oxycodone and Oxycontin are especially susceptible to being laced with fentanyl. Cocaine is another drug which can easily be laced with Fentanyl.

Sheriff Mace said that the three law enforcement agencies in the Grants-Milan area are working together to identify a suspect and arrest the dealer. Sheriff Mace reported how it appears as though the bad batch of drugs was either destroyed or trashed.

What is law enforcement doing about the epidemic?

In what has been a combination of resources from local police agencies, the Cibola County Sheriff’s Office created the Cibola County Narcotics Taskforce, a team with one primary mission – bring down drug dealers and keep Cibola’s streets clean. The task force has been working silently over the past few months to uncover evidence of drug trafficking and arrest drug dealers. The task force was recently involved in a year-long investigation which resulted in an arrest in Albuquerque, N.M.

This taskforce combines the resources of CCSO, MPD, the STIU teams from the area’s prisons, McKinley and Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Offices, and federal law enforcement agencies like the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to fuse the abilities of each agency and keep officers safe.

Grants Police Department has not been involved in this task force for several years. When asked if he would be interested in combining GPD’s resources with the task force, Chief Jeff Marez said that he would be happy to join the taskforce. “Our biggest problem right now is manpower.” Chief Marez said.

A lack of manpower is a problem shared by the county’s law enforcement agencies. Cibola County Sheriff’s Office is offering assistance to Grants Police Department, where three of the overdoses occurred, with an investigation into the overdoses. They are also helping Milan Police Department put the pieces together with a related overdose which occurred the same day as the others.

Sheriff Mace explained that because Fentanyl is so dangerous, new equipment was constructed to make their police work safer. “We’re trained to recognize the drug, but we have a machine that tells us what the drug is without us having to touch it. Fentanyl is so lethal that it can be absorbed through the skin, that’s why we carry our Narcan.”

Because Fentanyl is so dangerous, police and Emergency Medical Service staff – like firefighters and ambulance workers – carry Narcan in case of exposure to Fentanyl, and to protect those actively overdosing, a reaction which can be fatal.

Milan Police Chief Carl Ustupski explained that Narcan works by shutting off the receptors in the brain that accept chemicals delivered from medication. In simple terms, this means that the brain can no longer accept the drug, which helps save people during an overdose.

Chief Ustupski is a Drug Recognition Expert, and has been working to get drug education into the local school systems in an effort to prevent students from starting the slide to drug use. His work has included a series of presentations to the Grants-Cibola County School District. Milan Police Department teams up with the Cibola County DWI Program to show students the dangers of drug use, especially when driving.

The War on Drugs

The War on Drugs is a term used to describe the United States efforts to stem the illegal drug trade. The initiative began on June 18, 1971 focused on tackling the opioid trade. Since before the 70s, individual states were passing laws and rules to prohibit the trade and use of certain illicit substances.

Fentanyl is a Schedule II Narcotic, the penalty in New Mexico for possessing a Schedule II Narcotic is up to a $5,000 fine, up to 18 months in prison, or both.

CCSO has been working with the Cibola Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition for several years. One of the coalition’s programs, Peers Against Destructive Decisions, seeks to educate the future about the danger of drugs. PAAD is a program at Grants High School that puts the power of information into the hands of students, teaching them the dangers of opioids and other drugs, while giving them firsthand experience in sharing truthful and accurate information that will better the overall community.

Assistance with addiction

For people in need of assistance with opioid addiction, there is help available.

State assistance:

• Call or Text 988 if you are in a mental health crisis and a mental health professional will contact you.

• The NM Crisis and Access Line can be reached at 1-855-662-7474.

• The New Mexico Department of Health Opiate Overdose Prevention Helpline can be reached at 1-855-364-6663.

• Healthcare Worker and First Responder Support Line can be reached at 1-855-507-5509

Cibola assistance:

• Cibola General Hospital can be reached at 505-287-4446.

• Valle De Sol Behavioral Health can be reached at 505-287-7985.

• PMS Grants Family Counseling can be reached at 505-876-1890.

• Pueblo of Laguna Behavioral Health can be reached at 505-552-6513.

• Pueblo of Acoma Behavioral Health can be reached at 505-552-6661.

• Ramah Navajo Behavioral Health Services can be reached at 505-775-3353.

• Acoma - Canoncito-Laguna Hospital can be reached at 505-552-5300.

• Cibola County Regional Dispatch nonemergency line can be contacted at 505-287-4404. Call 911 if you or someone around you is having a medical emergency like an overdose.

• Milan Police Department offers YANA – a program for those struggling with depression and loneliness. People in the program will receive a free, daily phone call and will get the opportunity to chat. Visit https://www.villageofmilan.com/y.a.n.a._registration/index.php for more information.