DENVER — This scenario could have been a bizarre episode of "Storage Wars.”
The Drug Enforcement Administration announced on Monday in a news release that it had seized 1.7 million counterfeit fentanyl pills, along with 12 kilograms of fentanyl powder at a Colorado storage facility. Agents also found more than 2 pounds of methamphetamine.
The drugs were discovered in a storage unit facility in the Denver suburb of Highlands Ranch, the DEA said.
It was the largest one-time seizure of counterfeit pills in state history and the sixth-largest in U.S. history.
“This played out like an episode of a TV show, where a winning bidder legally bought a storage unit and unbeknownst to them, the unit contained 1.7 million counterfeit fentanyl pills and another 12 kilograms of fentanyl powder,” said David Olesky, the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Field Division Special Agent. “There is no doubt many lives have been saved by keeping these poison pills off the streets of Colorado.”
Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly said that deputies were called to a storage facility on Nov. 11. Investigators said that a person who legally bought the storage unit contents in an auction noticed there were drugs in the unit and contacted the sheriff’s office.
Deputies found a large number of M30 pills, which are often counterfeit and can contain fentanyl.
After testing, investigators confirmed the following seizure:
• 198 kilograms of counterfeit fentanyl pills, approximately 1.7 million pills;
• 12 kilograms of fentanyl powder;
• 2.5 pounds of methamphetamine.
The previous unit owner had been taken into federal custody by the DEA in April, and that led to the unit going unpaid. Typically, storage facilities will auction off the unit, and the winner can claim what it contains.
This time, the person who won the auction did the right thing and contacted authorities, Weekly said.
“I want to thank the citizen who reported this discovery, the storage facility staff for their cooperation, and the deputies who responded quickly and professionally,” Weekly said in a statement. “Let me send a strong and unmistakable message: fentanyl and illegal narcotics will not be tolerated in Douglas County. Our deputies, detectives, and crime lab professionals are committed to keeping this community safe, and we will remain relentless in that mission.”
The record seizure is connected with an ongoing DEA and Colorado Bureau of Investigation case.
“The seizure of these drugs represents countless lives saved, as these dangerous substances will never reach our communities,” CBI Director Armando Saldate said. “Our mission to get drugs off the streets and put traffickers behind bars remains as vital as ever,” CBI Director Armando Saldate said.
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