Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration said their latest seizure of "rainbow fentanyl" is the largest ever in New York, with 15,000 brightly colored pills containing the drug found hidden in children's toys.
The DEA said that a New Jersey woman, 48-year-old Latesha Bush, rented a car and drove the drugs to the west side of Manhattan, near 10 Avenue and West 37th Street. That's where agents found her with the cache of dangerous pills, stuffed in a Lego box next to toy bricks.
"It looks partly like an attempt to market fentanyl as a party drug," said NYC Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan.
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Multi-colored and bite-sized, the feds are warning parents to keep their kids away from the pills, which the DEA said contain lethal doses of fentanyl. The agency's special agent in charge of the New York division said that the materials are supplied by the Chinese, and the Mexican cartels make the drugs.
"Unequivocally, Mexico and China are an existential threat to the United States," said DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarentino. "This is every parent's worst nightmare."
The pills in the clear bag and wrapped up in black tape have a street value of $300,000.
The drug takedown was part of the DEA's One Pill Can Kill initiative. Nationally, the agency has seized more than 10 million pills.
The feds say that the threat is very real, as more than 72,000 Americans died from fentanyl in 2021. Agents started seeing "rainbow fentanyl" in New York back in February, and the recent bust was the four seizure they've made, the DEA said.
"The Pot of Gold is the only thing they care about. Not how many lives," said Brennan. "The Mexican cartels don't care if drug users live or die as long as they can continue to expand their market and make money."
Each pill was stamped with the letter M and number 30, in an effort to make them look like OxyCodone. Agents want to get the word out to stay away from these pills.
"This is the cartels way of attracting new customers," said Tarentino.
Agents say that two milligrams of fentanyl can kill a person. What they found on the Manhattan block could have killed half a million people.
