Thousands of fentanyl pills recovered during stop on I-15 as overdose deaths double in Utah

ST. GEORGE —Thousands of fentanyl pills were recovered during a traffic stop on Interstate 15 early Tuesday morning that resulted in an arrest -as the nationwide wave of the synthetic opioid continues to enter not only Utah but every other state in the U.S., the Drug Enforcement Administration says.

2019 stock image for illustrative purposes only of Interstate 15 in Washington County, Utah, Jan. 3, 2019 | St. George News

On Tuesday, an officer stopped on northbound I-15, just south of the Hurricane Exit, noticed a black passenger car heading north with a tail light that appeared to be out shortly after midnight.

The officer pulled out into traffic and after 2 miles conducted a traffic stop, and as he approached the car he noticed several of the tail lights appeared to be spray painted “completely black,” preventing any light from emitting through the plastic covering, the officer noted in the probable cause statement filed in support of the arrest.

While speaking with the driver, the officer noticed there were four occupants in the vehicle, including the front seat passenger who was later identified as 33-year-old Sabrina Nichol Stenholm, of Salt Lake City.

As the four occupants were exiting the car, the officer noticed that Stenholm grabbed her purse as she got out and appeared to be making quick movements as she rummaged through the purse, and was told to stop, and when she failed to comply, the officer noted, “the purse was removed from her person and placed on the hood of my patrol vehicle.”

In the meantime, the officer conducted a records check on the vehicle and its occupants, while a Washington County Sheriff’s deputy responded to the scene and deployed a K-9 to conduct an exterior sweep of the vehicle, which is when the animal reportedly indicated to the possible presence of narcotics.

Based on the positive alert, officers conducted a search of the vehicle and on the front passenger’s side floorboard they recovered a black leather handbag, and inside they found two large plastic bags containing blue circular pills that were consistent with fentanyl. Also inside was a third plastic bag that contained suspected heroin.

Stenholm was arrested and transported to jail in Washington County facing second-degree felony possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, as well as three misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance and paraphernalia.

The officer also requested the suspect be held without bail, a request that was approved by the court and she remains in jail on a no-bail hold.

Following the seizure of the suspected narcotics, the report states, all occupants were detained while the handbag that was placed on the hood of the police patrol vehicle was also searched, and inside officers found two more large plastic bags containing suspected fentanyl pills, along with a small green plastic container with suspected methamphetamine inside.

In all, more than 3,000 suspected fentanyl pills and 36 grams of heroin were recovered by police.

While speaking to officers, Stenholm said she was paid $1,000 dollars to travel to California to pick the pills up and transport the drugs to Salt Lake City. Authorities also say the suspect said she was hauling a total of about 3,000 pills, and that all of the suspected drugs found inside of the car belonged to her, according to the report.

Fentanyl’s tragic trajectory as overdose deaths continue to climb 

The arrest on Tuesday is one of multiple recent arrests involving fentanyl, including a traffic stop last week that resulted in the recovery of 195 pounds of narcotics, 12 of which contained fentanyl.

A nationwide effort is taking place to stem the tide of fentanyl entering every state, including Utah, at a time when “fentanyl poisonings are at an all-time high,” according to a statement released by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in April.

National overdose deaths by drugs show a sharp spike in the number of fentanyl-related deaths in 2020 that is depicted by blue line | Image courtesy of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, St. George News

Estimates recently released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) further support the DEAs findings and revealed that during the 12-month period ending in October 2021, more than 105,000 Americans died of drug overdoses, and more than two-thirds of those deaths involved fentanyl or other synthetic opioids.

In fact, more people suffered fentanyl-related deaths last year than from guns and automobiles combined.

In 2020, deaths involving synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, continued to rise with more than 56,500 overdose deaths reported during that year alone.

In Utah, the number of fentanyl-related deaths more than doubled between 2019, when 53 died from a fentanyl overdose to 120 deaths in 2020, according to the Utah Department of Health.

Fentanyl is highly-addictive and drug traffickers are increasingly mixing it with other illicit drugs—in powder and pill form—in an effort to drive addiction and attract repeat buyers and are 50-100 times more potent than morphine. Last year, the agency seized more than 15,000 pounds of fentanyl—four times the amount seized just four years earlier – which is enough to kill every person living in the United States, the statement said.

“In fact, DEA lab analyses reveal that two out of every five fake pills with fentanyl contain a potentially lethal dose,” said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram in the statement, adding the drug’s potency is creating a frightening nationwide trend where many overdose victims are dying after unknowingly ingesting fentanyl.

In Utah, 90,000 fentanyl pills were seized in 2021, according to data provided by the Utah Department of Health.

That upward trend shows no sign of stopping, according to the DEA, if the amount of fentanyl recovered is any indication. In the first three months of 2022, the agency seized nearly 2,000 pounds of fentanyl and one million fake opioid pills – efforts that are “putting an end to this tragic trajectory,” said Sheriff Mike Milstead, of Minnehaha County in South Dakota.

A vast majority of counterfeit pills brought into the United States are produced in Mexico, and China is supplying chemicals for the manufacturing of fentanyl in Mexico, the DEA says.

This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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