A vehicle stop by a San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Department deputy in Ripon on Wednesday may have ended up saving lives.
According to the agency, K9 deputies stopped a vehicle in the area of Highway 99 and Main Street in Ripon on Wednesday for expired registration and tailgating. When K9 Rango – who is cross-trained in both apprehension and narcotics detection – alerted on the vehicle, deputies performed a search and discovered as many as 20,000 fentanyl pills that were disguised in hair gel containers.
While some of the pills were the typical blue “M30” tablets that have been on the streets for some time – they’re pressed and stamped to appear like 30-milligram oxycodone pills, but actually contain a substance more than 50 times stronger – others were the “rainbow” fentanyl pills that have been making headlines in recent weeks.
Upon making the discovery deputies arrested 32-year-old Abril Campos of Los Angeles for possession of narcotics for sale. He was booked into the San Joaquin County Jail on $100,000 bail. He is due to appear in the Manteca branch of the San Joaquin County Superior Court at 1:30 p.m. to answer to the charges.
Law enforcement throughout the Central Valley have seen an uptick in arrests along the Highway 99 corridor after stopping vehicles that were later found to be carrying large quantities of the counterfeit pills – which are often manufactured in Mexico using ingredients obtained from China and smuggled into the United States concealed in vehicles through legal ports of entry.
The California Highway Patrol office in Merced recently shared a bust where thousands of the pills – each one containing a potentially lethal dose of the incredibly potent drug – were recovered.
The increasing prevalence of “rainbow” fentanyl pills on the streets – the pills are dyed in a variety of colors other than typical blue during the manufacturing process – has prompted public health and law enforcement authorities to warn parents ahead of Halloween to be on the lookout, fearing that the bright colors will make the pills look like candy to young children.
Fentanyl has become so prevalent that some school districts in the area have gone so far as to train staff members on how to safely deploy naloxone – commonly known by its trade name Narcan – to students who unknowingly take fentanyl-tainted pills on campus. Public health agencies across the state have also relaxed standards on the life-saving drug and are distributing it for free to residents who feel they may need to have it on hand.
To contact Bulletin reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.
