Federal officials announced the “largest fentanyl bust” in U.S. history on Tuesday, leading to the apprehension of gang members in the country illegally and seizure of mounds of drugs, weapons, and cash.
The Drug Enforcement Agency worked with state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies to bust a Sinaloa Cartel operation spanning New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and Oregon.
Agencies seized 11.5 kilos of fentanyl powder, 3 million fentanyl pills, 35 kilos of meth, 7.5 kilos of cocaine, 4.5 kilos of heroin, 49 rifles/pistols, and $5 million in cash, Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
“It marks the most significant victory in our nation’s fight against fentanyl and drug trafficking to date,” she said.
“Behind the three million fentanyl pills we seized are destructive criminal acts thwarted, and American lives saved. This wasn’t just a bust—it was a battlefield victory against a terrorist-backed network pumping death into our cities,” DEA Acting Administrator Robert Murphy said. “This case represents DEA’s largest single seizure of fentanyl pills to date.”
Six of the individuals arrested were in the country illegally, including Heriberto Salazar Amaya, 36, a Sinaloa Cartel member who allegedly headed the operation and lived in Salem, Oregon, but did not have drugs on him when arrested.
The Trump administration classified the Sinaloa Cartel, along with Tren de Aragua and MS-13, as foreign terrorist organizations in February.
Bondi said the suspects will be tried in the U.S., rather than deported to Mexico out of fear they would be released and make their way back across the border illegally again.
The bust is part of the administration’s “Operation Take Back America” effort to secure the border and defeat foreign gangs selling drugs and tracking humans in the U.S.
