Small Oklahoma police department seizes 8.5 pounds of fentanyl during routine traffic stop

ROLAND, Okla. — A table, blue with pills, makes the Roland Assistant Police Chief Chris Waters beam with pride. He says they are fentanyl disguised oxycodone pills.

“Officer Reagan made a very good traffic stop. I think it was estimated around 40,000 fentanyl pills,” said Waters.

The pills were seized during a traffic stop and posted on the department’s Facebook page.

“We have seen 151 percent increase in fentanyl related deaths over the last two years and the majority of those are fentanyl in pill form that is pressed into these M30 oxycodone tablets, these counterfeits,” said Mark Woodward, Spokesperson for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics (OBN).

Woodward says what’s not fake though is the pain these drugs can cause families.

“Many times, these victims of overdoses are getting it from somebody they trust and often a boyfriend, girlfriend a family member,” said Woodward, “Not only does the friend have to deliver the fact that they killed their best friend, but they are also looking at homicide charges.”

Woodward knows of at least 12 cases when someone was charged with homicide after they supplied a friend with oxycodone.

Woodward says these drugs are coming from a Chinese cartel operating in Oklahoma.

These cartels are pressing it to look like us pharmaceutical oxycodone and side-by-side you cannot tell the difference. Many of the victims of overdose thinking they are buying oxycodone.

“It can be just as powerful as oxycodone, but certain times of fentanyl can be 100 to a thousand times stronger,” said Woodward.

In this seizure police arrested three people, a fourth suspect ran away.

“Even though that may not have been going to Roland these big drug loads like this can go anywhere, Little Rock, Fort Smith, northwest Arkansas maybe a little further east but they always work their way back to us,” said Waters.

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