BATON ROUGE – Fentanyl is regarded as an extremely deadly drug and is found throughout the country, not just in big cities. More and more often, local stories of large or record-breaking busts of fentanyl and other narcotics are breaking the news.
Corey Terrell Gardner, someone law enforcement calls a leader of a Baton Rouge area drug operation, was recently sentenced to 260 months in federal prison for multiple drugs-related convictions, including conspiracy to distribute and possession with the intent to distribute meth and fentanyl. He was also sentenced to five years of supervised release after his 260-month term. That’s just under 11 years.
Gardner admitted to operating a drug distribution organization in the Baton Rouge area in 2019, where he and others distributed meth, fentanyl, and heroin. When his home and other locations were raided, 27 ounces of meth, 2.7 ounces of heroin and 1.6 ounces of fentanyl was seized, as well as guns and over 100 rounds of ammunition. The amount of fentanyl seized is enough to make 22,000 pills, according to officials.
Recent local busts focus on getting drugs off the streets
Local law enforcement has been taking the threat of fentanyl seriously. On Tuesday, Oct. 29, the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office helped multiple federal agencies conduct a drug bust of a large tens of thousands of fentanyl pills as well as meth in Albany.
Multiple agencies were involved in the investigation, in addition to LPSO deputies and Narcotics agents, including the DEA and Homeland Security.
While LPSO has not shared more details of the seizure or arrests at this time, deputies and agents are working to build the case for prosecution, the sheriff explained in a video LPSO posted to social media.
This seizure is the most recent in several large busts over the past few months. In September, EBRSO arrested three people in connection with allegedly distributing large amounts of fentanyl and meth. According to EBRSO, the amount seized was enough to amount to 12,520 lethal doses.
In August, BRPD announced a seizure of over 186 pounds of fentanyl, enough to kill 42 million people. This was noted as one of the largest fentanyl seizures in U.S. history.
These seizures come after East Baton Rouge Parish saw a 6,000-percent increase from 2015 in fentanyl overdose deaths in 2023.
The threat of fentanyl: One pill can kill
Steven Hofer, special agent in charge of the DEA New Orleans division, said fentanyl is a major threat in every community throughout the U.S. These large drug busts locally are evidence of the DEA (and other agencies) focusing more on battling the crisis that fentanyl presents.
“We are gaining ground and getting better,” said Hofer. “We’re utilizing our data better. We’re utilizing all of our resources, our financial resources, and how we investigate. We are able to run more effective and more efficient investigations specifically targeting the fentanyl pills.”
Fentanyl tends to be small and is usually found in a pill form, the same size as many prescription pills, which makes it possible to have more pills in a small space, he said. In addition, the profit margin for each pill is very high, so someone looking to make a lot of money off the drug can easily hide a large amount of pills.
Because fentanyl has been a top concern for the DEA in the past few years, Hofer said the agency takes investigations very seriously.
“Our focus has been on making sure that we focus our investigations on the entire supply chain. And what I mean is, if we can, work cases that go from victim back to distributor, wholesaler, transporter, smuggler, producer or manufacturer, all the way back to, if we had the opportunity, to work cases that go all the way back to the the chemical seller,” he said.
A majority of the fentanyl pills in the U.S. are produced, manufactured, marketed, distributed by two cartels in Mexico: the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, he said.
“They are ruthless organizations that only have one thing on their mind, and that is how much money can they make from, basically selling or distributing as many fake pills as they can,” Hofer told UWK.
In 2023, the DEA seized more than 78 million fentanyl pills in the U.S. Of those 78 million pills, the agency found that seven out of every 10 pills had at least two milligrams, which is regarded as the potentially lethal dose of fentanyl, he added.
The DEA urges people to become educated about the dangers of fentanyl and how “One pill can kill.” According to the DEA’s fentanyl website, more than 47,700,000 pills of fentanyl have been seized nationally in 2024.
Download the Unfiltered with Kiran app from the Apple App Store and Google Play to stay updated on the latest news across the Capital area.
