BILLINGS — Law enforcement is raising awareness about a scary drug it says is starting to show up in larger quantities in our area.
Former DEA agent Stacy Zinn says carfentanil is much more deadly than fentanyl: “One little speck could kill you, and that's what makes it dangerous.”
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Zinn worked for the US Drug Enforcement Administration from 2001 to 2023, the last five as a resident agent in charge in Billings.
"About 2015 we saw a carfentanil case, liquid carfentanil came into Yellowstone County and unfortunately we did have one overdose, death involved in that,” Zinn said.“But we never found out where the source of that carfentanil.”
The Eastern Montana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force recently seized 5,300 pills made up of synthetic opioid carfentanil.
Zinn says that many pills is a lot for a drug trafficking organization to lose in one shipment.
“It came through the through the mail, and our, drug task force did an excellent job of interdicting it,” said Will Janisch, drug intelligence officer for the Montana Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI).
The DCI works with the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force.
He says traffickers find lots of ways to bring drugs into Yellowstone County.
"Billings is one of our major drug trafficking hubs for the state," said Janisch. "It's the biggest city. It sits right on I-90, I-94.”
The DOJ also says seven of nine other seizures in Montana that were tested were found in Yellowstone County.
And experts want people who encounter these drugs to know just how deadly they can be.
"We have seen the carfentanil in our area again talking about the potency and the dangers of it,” said Sheriff Mike Linder, R-Yellostone County. “We just want to make sure that the public is well aware.”
