SALT LAKE CITY — It’s highly addictive, deadly and abundant.
Fentanyl is flooding the streets of the Mountain West and Utah in particular.
As little as 2 Milligrams, or the amount that can fit on the tip of a pencil, can be enough to kill you.
Two recent arrests resulted in Utah agents recovering more than 40 pounds of fentanyl powder.
Investigators say it’s being mixed in with many other street drugs.
Tiffany Naccarato works in recovery. She said she’s very open about her own struggles with fentanyl and addiction.
“So I’ve overdosed 12 times total? I cannot tell you which was fentanyl or heroin or a mix," she said.
Now, nearly 9 years in long-term recovery, Naccarato is the development director for USARA, Utah Recovers.
But nearly two decades ago, married then and a mom, Tiffany began taking prescription pain medication.
But by the time the pills ran out, she was hooked.
Naccarato first turned to heroin, then she found something else.
“I think it was 2010 actually when I started doing the fentanyl. And it was hard to find, and so I was constantly looking for it," she said.
But now?
Naccarato said it seemed to be everywhere.
“It’s very alarming and sad that I was one of the few then that tried fentanyl, that did fentanyl, that wanted the fentanyl. And now it’s the majority of people that I talk to or that I serve individually," she said.
Police and prosecutors back that up.
Agents with an FBI task force arrested a West Valley man and seized 22 pounds of fentanyl powder in February.
Officials say that would be enough for nearly 5,000,000 potentially fatal doses.
Melissa Holyoak is the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah.
Her prosecutors recently indicted the West Valley suspect.
Holyoak said he could spend decades in federal prison if convicted.
Holyoak said state, local and federal law enforcement partners are all doing what they can to try and slow the flow of fentanyl into Utah.
But much of what’s already here is being mixed in with other street drugs like meth, heroin, cocaine, and pain pills that appear to be legitimate.
Melissa Holyoak said it’s buyer beware
“And 80% of the counterfeit pills that are out on the street are laced with fentanyl. So folks should know that the only pills you should be taking are those they are actually picking up from the pharmacy," she said.
