Frederick County authorities seized enough Fentanyl that would have killed tens of thousands of people.
FREDERICK, MD. (LG) It’s been another successful month for the Maryland Criminal Intelligence Network. This announcement comes from the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention. Last month, agencies that received grants to participate in the MCIN, shared information and resources across networks with the mission of taking dangerous offenders into custody, according to officials.
“The Maryland Criminal Intelligence Network has been extremely successful,” said Glenn Fueston, Executive Director. “The Governor announced it, I believe in January of 2018. And since then we have already identified over 500 criminal organizations, so actually 574. We have prosecutions of 273 individuals, 338 firearms seized and 53 human trafficking victims recovered,” added Fueston.
Frederick County’s Drug Enforcement Unit has been a key player in the Maryland Intelligence Criminal Network. “And they are partnering with agencies in and around the state. And in Frederick alone there are a handful of agencies participating.”
Other agencies involved include the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office, Maryland State Police, Brunswick Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Hagerstown Police Department, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Newport Police Department (Delaware), Homeland Security Delaware Office, and the DEA Delaware Office.
“We are bringing together different law enforcement agencies, but we are collaborating multi-disciplinary with prevention agencies, as well as victim service agencies and really what it’s about is collaborating and information sharing,” he added.
Frederick Police Department’s Drug Enforcement Unit spearheaded an investigation of a drug trafficking organization connected to a number of non-fatal and fatal overdoses in Frederick. The investigation expanded to other jurisdictions in Maryland and Delaware. Detectives from the Frederick High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) group, as well as SWAT teams from the Frederick Police Department, Washington County and Maryland State Police carried out multiple search warrants on more than a dozen locations in Frederick County, Washington County, Carroll County, and New Castle County, Delaware.
The search warrants led to the recovery of more than $40,000 worth of narcotics. This included:
90 grams of fentanyl
36 grams of methamphetamine
More than 125 grams of heroin
Suboxone
Marijuana
Oxycodone
Percocet
Xanax
Adderall
According to the DEA, a lethal dose of fentanyl can be as little as 2 milligrams. Investigators indicated that the 90 grams seized in this case translates to 90,000 milligrams of fentanyl – enough to cause 45,000 potentially deadly overdoses.
In all, authorities said 27 people are charged in connection with the investigation, or have been identified as associates of the drug trafficking organization.
By: Loretta Gaines