Westchester County Police arrested a Connecticut man on a felony drug charge and seized more than two kilos of fentanyl during a traffic stop earlier this week.
Orlando Garcia, 42, of Wolcott Street, Waterbury, Conn, was charged with Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance 1st Degree following a traffic stop Wednesday on the Saw Mill River Parkway in Mount Pleasant. He was also charged with Aggravated Unlicensed Operation of a Vehicle 3rd Degree, a misdemeanor.
The incident began shortly after 5 p.m. when Garcia was stopped for traffic violations as he drove southbound on the Saw Mill near County Police headquarters in Hawthorne. Garcia was taken into custody when a computer check revealed that his license was suspended and that he had an outstanding warrant for failing to appear in court to answer a charge of Driving While Ability Impaired by Drugs, a misdemeanor.
During subsequent investigation, including the use of narcotics detection canine Philly, officers located a sealed cardboard box in the vehicle containing 4.3 pounds of a substance believed to be fentanyl. Garcia was arraigned in Mount Pleasant Town Court and remanded to the Westchester County Jail in Valhalla.
Fentanyl is a legal prescription drug used for pain control during surgery and for chronic or breakthrough cancer pain. It’s also being manufactured illegally and sold for its euphoric effects. Street drugs like heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine are being laced with this opioid, as are counterfeit drugs made to look like the real ones, like Vicodin or Xanax. It’s an extremely potent and rapidly fatal substitute for heroin.
Just 2 to 3 milligrams of this drug can kill a person. It blocks opioid receptors and its most dangerous side effect — like other opioids — is respiratory depression, which can quickly lead to coma and death.
According to the DEA, illegally manufactured fentanyl it is being produced in China and Mexico and crossing over the U.S. border or coming in via the mail. Online pharmacies from China are also selling this illegal substance. Fentanyl is easy to make, less bulky, and easier to ship than heroin.
According to the DEA, one kilogram can be bought in China for $3,000 to $5,000 and yields over $1.5 million in illicit sales in the U.S. Based on those figures, the Fentanyl seized by County Police had a street value of $3 Million.
