Amid an ongoing opioid crisis, a special task force of the California National Guard helped seize 1,542 pounds of fentanyl last month, with a street value of about $11.9 million, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday.
The nationwide opioid crisis continues to plague California — even as individual counties record a plateau in deaths related to drug overdoses.
State officials are responding by doubling staffing and investing millions towards a special task force to remove fentanyl pills, and other illicit opioids, from street sales.
In October, the California National Guard’s Counterdrug Task Force helped seize more than 1.7 million fentanyl pills. The effort comes after Newsom increased the number of service members earlier this year from 155 to 392 to halt the entry of fentanyl across state ports.
“California continues the intensive work of keeping fentanyl out of our communities, helping law enforcement seize over 204% more fentanyl last month than the month prior,” Newsom said in a news release Tuesday.
The task force was launched in 2022, when about 30 service members were deployed to the San Ysidro, Otay Mesa, Tecate and Calexico ports of entry. Following its “initial success,” the task force doubled in size after receiving a $30-million federal investment to halt drug trafficking by transnational criminal organizations and address humanitarian and security efforts, state officials say.
Last year, the task force and California Highway Patrol were deployed to San Francisco to help police and prosecutors tackle the city’s fentanyl crisis. Some said the plan lacked specificity while others said it targeted low-income neighborhoods such as the Tenderloin. But Newsom assured critics that the partnership targeted drug traffickers and suppliers, not people experiencing substance abuse.
In 2023, 810 people in San Francisco died from unintentional drug overdoses, according to the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. About 540 people have died from accidental overdoses in San Francisco between January and October 2024.
The drugs most often reported in those deaths were fentanyl, heroin, medicinal opioids, methamphetamine and cocaine.
In Los Angeles County, the number of casualties decreased from 3,220 in 2022 to 3,092 in 2023, according to the L.A. County Department of Public Health.
The slight drop is partially accredited to the community distribution of naloxone, a medicine used to reverse the effects of opioids and stabilize breathing. About 5,000 overdoses were reversed with naloxone as of 2022, according to L.A. County Health Services.
