JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Drug Enforcement Administration has announced results of a worldwide operation called Fentanyl Free America, which was also conducted in the Sunshine State, including the Jacksonville area.
“We went after all known associates and fentanyl dealers throughout the United States and throughout the world, targeting fentanyl traffickers; trying to save more American lives,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Deanne Reuter, who oversees all DEA investigations in Florida.
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Fentanyl Free America was conducted during the month of October. During that time, agents in Florida seized massive amounts of illegal drugs that included:
- 63,704 counterfeit pills
- 10 kilos of fentanyl powder
- 4 kilos of methamphetamine
- 400 liters of liquid precursors used to produce fentanyl
- 7 pill press machines used to make fentanyl pills
Agents also seized 23 firearms and $165,292 in U.S. cash.
The DEA says all the drugs seized during the operation came from the Sinaloa drug cartel and Cartel Jalisco New Generation, also known as CJNG. Both cartels are the largest Mexican drug cartels with employees operating throughout the entire state of Florida. Both cartels are also identified by the U.S. as narco-terrorists.
“In October we took down many distribution cells,” said Reuter, who also confirmed that a lot of the drugs were seized in Jacksonville.
“Up in the Jacksonville area, we had huge impact with fentanyl seizures,” said Reuter.
Operation Fentanyl Free America also exposed a location in Jacksonville where the cartels have been trying to exploit for purposes of smuggling drugs into the country.
“We’ve received specific information regarding certain ports in the United States and there’s been a big uptick in attempts to traffic into the Port of Jacksonville because we’re making efforts elsewhere to stop the flow into other ports, so the cartels are trying to find new ways and new areas to exploit and Jacksonville is one of the areas where we’re seeing an uptick in port seizures and operations trying to get into the Jacksonville area,” said Reuter.
The DEA said it’s mainly seeing cocaine smuggled through the port while meth and fentanyl continue to be smuggled across the U.S.-Mexican border and down Interstate 10 to Florida or smuggled through the mail.
New4JAX reached out to the Jacksonville Port Authority for comment on the DEA’s revelation and is still waiting for a response.
The DEA said it’s also seeing positive results from intensified operations that are forcing cartels to change their business practices. Those results include a reduction in fentanyl lethal doses.
“Twenty-nine percent of fentanyl pills analyzed this year were potentially less lethal than the 76 percent of pills that were analyzed in 2023,” said the DEA. During that same time, fentanyl powder purity decreased from 19 percent to 10 percent.
According to the DEA, those numbers correlate with the decline in synthetic opioid deaths to levels not seen since April 2020.
As of Dec. 1, across the U.S., the DEA has seized more than 45 million fentanyl pills and more than 9,300 pounds of fentanyl powder, removing an estimated 347 million potentially deadly doses of fentanyl from American streets. In addition, more than 193,000 kilos of cocaine have been seized.