Wichita police say they’ve made largest fentanyl bust in department history

Officers have made the largest fentanyl bust in Wichita police history, the department said Thursday.

It’s enough pills to possibly kill the entire population of Wichita.

“We’ve estimated — based on weight — the number of pills to be somewhere in the area of half a million to a million, which would make this the largest seizure of fentanyl for our agency to date and a record seizure nationwide,” the department said in a Facebook post.

Phoenix police reported last month that officers seized over one million pills, making it the largest in the department’s history. Even if Wichita’s isn’t the largest nationwide, it is still a very significant bust.

The Wichita Police Department said it couldn’t provide further details because the investigation continues.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that can be deadly. The Drug Enforcement Agency, which previously launched a one-pill-can-kill campaign to raise awareness about the drug, says it’s 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine. The drug, which comes mostly from China and Mexico, is often concealed as imitation prescription drugs. A recent marketing strategy by the drug dealers has made the pills brightly colored, making them “look like candy to children and young people,” the DEA said.

The opioid epidemic has taken a new twist with highly-potent fentanyl. On Wednesday, the Kansas City Police Department in Missouri tweeted that four people, including a toddler, have died from fentanyl in 13 days.

In Sedgwick County, opioids account for the majority of drug-related deaths. Local data shows opioid deaths more than doubled from 2018 to 2020, the latest year available, to nearly 90.

This story was originally published October 20, 2022 at 3:00 PM.