NY warns about fentanyl threat during New Year’s celebrations

Fentanyl is the most lethal drug on the streets of New York City today, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration of NYC.

“Users want this because it’s more potent and more powerful than heroin,” said Ray Donovan, the DEA’s new special agent charge, in an interview Thursday.

“Today’s drug dealers are mixing heroin and fentanyl, cocaine and fentanyl, and users think they’re getting one thing, but instead they’re getting the deadly drug,” he said. “Two-milligrams is considered lethal.”

This year, federal agents made a record-breaking number of drug seizures in the NYC-area – including an estimated half-a-billion dollars worth of fentanyl.

“We’ve seized in the past year 600-kilograms of fentanyl, which is equivalent to 540 million dosages on the streets of New York.”

That’s almost a 400 percent increase since 2017 – when officials seized 161 kilograms of the drug.

“There are two-primary sources for fentanyl,” Donovan said. “One is China, the other is Mexico and there’s an uptick because it’s so cheap, unregulated and easy to get your hands on.”

The warning now, as New Year’s Eve celebrations near?

“With the celebrations upon us and thousands of people that come into the city, drug distributors are arriving too to distribute their narcotics,” added the special agent in charge.

“You think you’re purchasing one drug but you’re getting fentanyl and it may kill you.”

Donovan, who was born and raised in NY and had a hand in taking down El Chapo,  said he’s going to continue to go after criminal organizations trafficking drugs through NYC.

“There’s millions and billions of dollars leaving NYC each year and one of my intentions here as the SAC of NY is to go after that money flow,” he said.