A huge seizure of Fentanyl was described as "a weapon of mass destruction" by investigators in Ohio as three men were charged intent to distribute the deadly drug.
Special Agent Vance Callender said the 40lbs was “enough to kill the entire population" of the northern US state, "many times over."
His comments came after Shamar Davis, 31, Anthony Franklin, 30, and Grady Jackson, 37, were with intent to distribute more than 400 grams of fentanyl and a felon in possession of a firearm, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s office.
Special agents also seized 1,500 grams of a substance that they believed to be methamphetamine, 500 grams of heroin, three firearms and more than $30,000. The substances will be tested.
Fentanyl is 50-100 times more potent than morphine, and fentanyl overdose deaths increased by 47 percent between 2016 and 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Ohio has been particularly hurt by the opioid epidemic which the Council of Economic Advisers estimates cost the US government more than $2.5 trillion in lost GDP between 2015-2018.
The state had the second highest rate of opioid deaths in the US in 2017.
A recent report by the RAND Corporation found that while fentanyl didn’t necessarily correlate with an increase in drug users, it does correlate with a higher number of deaths.
As few as two to three milligrams can cause an overdose.
Ohio Attorney General David Yost said that the quantity of fentanyl in this case amounted "to chemical warfare and a weapon of mass destruction.”
