Deadly fentanyl drug on the rise in San Luis

The San Police Department has seen an increase of fentanyl-related cases in the area and they believe it’s linked to the drug tunnel that was discovered back in August.

In Arizona, the opioid crisis has ended the lives of about 800 people in 2016, is expected to exceed 1,000 people by 2019, and fifty percent of those will be due to fentanyl overdoses, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Police Chief, Richard Jessup, of the San Luis Police Department, said that it has impacted the border town.

“Being in San Luis, in a border town, you got [the] Colorado [River], the borders with Mexico and California, obviously we become part of that pipeline,” said Jessup.

He adds that Arizona’s region is commonly used for drug trafficking due to the proximity from Mexico.

“There were four pounds of fentanyl discovered at the tunnel which really equates to three-million doses,” said Jessup.

The chief of police said that they’re working with Mexican authorities once a month to resolve the crisis and put an end to the problem in San Luis, Ariz.