Some 12,000 suspected fentanyl pills in candy boxes seized at Los Angeles airport

() — About 12,000 suspected fentanyl pills packaged in popular candy boxes were seized at Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday, authorities said.

Someone tried to get through the TSA checkpoint with multiple bags of candy and snacks, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. Press release. But there were no candy inside the boxes marked SweetTarts, Skittles and Whoppers, the sheriff’s department said. Instead, they contained what authorities believe to be thousands of the dangerous pills.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin, and up to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the Administration of United States Drug Enforcement (DEA).

Just two milligrams of fentanyl — about the size of 10 to 15 grains of table salt — is considered a lethal dose.

“The suspect absconded prior to being apprehended by law enforcement, but has been identified and the investigation is ongoing,” the department stated.

Federal authorities and local law enforcement have been warning of the dangers of fentanyl for months, with the DEA warning that “one pill can kill.”

The agency’s lab tests have found that four out of 10 fentanyl pills contain a potentially lethal dose, and the agency and local law enforcement have been seizing the pills at a record rate, the DEA said.

Late last month, the DEA announced significant fentanyl seizures — more than 10.2 million fentanyl pills seized — across the country during a multi-month operation against the deadly drug.

“Fentanyl remains the deadliest drug threat facing this nation,” DEA officials said in announcing the seizure.

In 2021, a record number of Americans—107,622—died from drug poisoning or overdose. About 66% of those deaths can be attributed to synthetic opioids like fentanyl, according to the agency.

Fentanyl was implicated in more than 77% of teen overdose deaths in 2021, according to a study published in JAMA earlier this year.

However, with drug use among adolescents at an all-time low, it is likely that the increase in overdose deaths is not due to more adolescents using drugs, but rather to the increasing risks of the drugs themselves. drugs, said one of the study authors.

In August, the DEA warned the public of colored fentanyl, dubbed “rainbow fentanyl,” which it said was spreading across the country.

The colorful appearance of the pills is a “deliberate effort by drug traffickers to encourage addiction among children and young adults,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in the alert.

The DEA did not specify in its announcement whether rainbow fentanyl had caused overdoses or deaths among the youth.

According to authorities, many fake pills also pose as prescription opioids like Xanax, oxycodone, Percocet, or stimulants like Adderall.

Last month, the Los Angeles Police Department announced that it was investigating multiple overdoses, including one that resulted in a death, at a high school in Hollywood. Investigators said they believe the students bought what they thought were Percocet pills.

Following the overdoses, the Los Angeles Unified School District announced that its campuses will be stocked with doses of naloxone, a drug used to temporarily reverse the effects of opioid drug overdoses, including fentanyl.