A suspected drug dealer in Orange County, California, has been charged with possessing enough fentanyl that could kill up to “12 million people,” according to the county District Attorney’s office.
“Alfonso Gomez-Santana, 60, of Fullerton has been charged with one felony count of sale or transport of a controlled substance and two felony counts of possession of sale with intent to sell,” per the District Attorney’s office press release on Friday.
California Highway Patrol Officers arrested Gomez-Santana on Wednesday in Fullerton near South Lemon Street and Orangethorpe Avenue and found more than four kilos of fentanyl while searching his vehicle.
When officers went to go search the suspect’s home, they discovered “20 more kilos of fentanyl, $250,000 in fentanyl pills, and 122 grams of methamphetamine.”
Despite being found with “enough fentanyl to kill 12 million people,” the suspected drug dealer only faces up to six years and eight months in prison if he is convicted on all counts.
“It is unconscionable that someone who has the ability to kill 12 million people is facing just a handful of years in jail,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer.
He continued:
Fentanyl is a national epidemic that killed more than 100,000 Americans last year and it’s not going to stop unless we have the tools as prosecutors to hold these drug dealers and drug manufacturers accountable for peddling death. Every parent in America should be petrified that one day they are going to walk into their child’s bedroom and find them dead because their child thought they were experimenting with recreational drugs and instead drug dealers sold them a deadly dose of fentanyl. This is not fear-mongering; this is reality – and if we don’t start strengthening penalties for drug dealers it’s going to be the reality for you or someone you love.
Breitbart News reported in May that 107,000 Americans have died due to a drug overdose death in 2021, an increase of 15 percent. Moreover, 71,000 Americans died of a fentanyl-related overdose in 2021, whereas only 58,000 perished from the same drug a year before, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Breitbart News also reported in April that border officials seized 11,200 pounds of fentanyl at the border in Fiscal Year 2021 and have already seized 5,800 pounds of fentanyl since October 1, 2021, when Fiscal Year 2022 began, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.
“The figures indicate that fentanyl seizures under [President Joe] Biden, last year alone, have quadrupled since Fiscal Year 2019 when [former President Donald] Trump was in office, ” per Breitbart News.
In April, California authorities in Alameda County seized up to 90 pounds of fentanyl, which was worth a total of $4.2 million.
You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.
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