Enough fentanyl to kill everyone in Kansas, worth $200M, found in drug bust on I-70
A big drug bust along the interstate in western Kansas found enough of a deadly drug to kill everyone in the state.
Estimates show the 22 pounds of fentanyl, worth about $200 million, would be enough for nearly 5 million fatal doses.
The drug bust happened on Jan. 19 in Trego County and led to criminal charges that were filed in U.S. District Court in Wichita on Tuesday. Gleneice Lashawn Phillips, 24, and Kamryne Jahni Wright, 19, are charged with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl.
An affidavit written by a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper who is also a task force officer with the Drug Enforcement Administration details how the suspected drug traffickers were caught during a traffic stop.
A state trooper pulled over a black 2015 Dodge Ram van on I-70 about 15 miles west of Hays after noticing the driver wasn’t wearing a seat belt. Phillips was driving and Wright was the passenger. The trooper smelled marijuana coming from the vehicle and searched it.
First he found a marijuana cigarette in the center console. Then he found 29 bundles that were wrapped in clear plastic bags and vacuum sealed. Another 10 bundles were wrapped in blue packaging and vacuum sealed. Four more packages were wrapped in gray tape and vacuum sealed. The packages were hidden in the rear quarter panels of the van.
Forensic lab testing by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation showed the 29 clear bundles contained about 36 pounds of meth. The 10 blue packages contained about 22 pounds of fentanyl. The gray packages had a cutting agent that by itself is not a controlled substance.
Both women were arrested and booked into the Trego County Jail, where they remain in lieu of $500,000 bonds. During an interrogation, the suspected drug smugglers admitted they picked up the drugs in California and were taking them to Dayton, Ohio, the affidavit says.
Two milligrams of fentanyl is a lethal dose for most people, the DEA reported in 2018. The 22 pounds of fentanyl equate to nearly 5 million deadly doses.
The population of Kansas is a bout 2.91 million people.
The Department of Justice estimated in 2017 that 1 kilogram of fentanyl is enough to create 1 million counterfeit pills that would sell for more than $20 million. The 22 pounds of fentanyl equate to nearly 10 million pills worth more than $200 million.
A spokesman for the highway patrol confirmed that the fentanyl estimates are “fairly accurate.”
The meth seized from the van would also be worth a small fortune. The nearly 36 pounds of meth would be valued as high as $180,000, based off a 2019 KBI report showing the price per pound of meth in the state ranges from $3,500 to $5,000. The drugs were found in western Kansas, where meth is valued at the high end of the range.
The price of meth has hit a 20-year low in the state’s largest city, according to a member of the Wichita Police Department command staff. Deputy Chief Jose Salcido said in January that a large supply of the illegal drug made the market so saturated that the price dropped, leading to “a very significant drop” in property crimes.
Wichita police investigated a rash of overdose deaths last month of fentanyl-laced oxycodone. The victims were a 19-year-old man who died after taking just one pill, a 16-year-old boy and 23- and 27-year-old men.
“We suspect that a new batch of this has hit Wichita,” WPD Capt. Jeff Allen said in February. “We fear we are going to have more of these.”
Wichita was home to one of the first domestically-produced illicit-fentanyl cases in the United States. A DEA report states that investigators in the 1990s traced fentanyl-laced heroin to two clandestine labs in Wichita, where 40 pounds of the drug were seized. The so-called “Tango and Cash” brand of street heroin is believed to have led to 126 overdose deaths.