A cute stuffed animal toy for their daughter turned out to be an unsuspecting parents’ worst nightmare after they discovered 5,000 fentanyl pills hidden inside the toy.
The Phoenix Police Department posted a photo of the deadly narcotics on Twitter over the weekend. According to the tweet, the toy was purchased at a thrift story in El Mirage, Arizona.
“They called #phoenixpolice and gave the dangerous drugs to officers. Remember to inspect all opened and used items,” the tweet read.
Fentanyl is a highly-potent synthetic opioid that is largely responsible for the spike in opioid-related overdose deaths our country has seen over the course of the years-long drug epidemic.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl, which is often mixed with either heroin or cocaine, was the driver of a 38.4% jump in overdose deaths from the previous year to the 81,000 drug overdose deaths recorded over the 12-month period ending in May 2020.
