Sacramento-area law enforcement seized 196,000 fentanyl pills in 9 months

Rosalio Ahumada, The Sacramento Bee on May 29, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California and local law enforcement leaders gathered Thursday to explore more options in the Sacramento region to seize fentanyl and arrest suppliers and dealers selling the deadly synthetic opioid.

Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho announced Thursday that he will be pushing for California to establish a fentanyl murder registry for convicted offenders similar to the sex offender registry. He also will advocate for the state to require convicted fentanyl dealers to attend programs where they’ll hear from families of people who died after ingesting the highly addictive drug.

He said he also hopes for an AI-powered overdose alert system in Sacramento County, while law enforcement goes after online fentanyl supply chains and pill-press distributors.

“We cannot arrest our way out of this, and we cannot educate our way out of it alone,” Ho said at a news conference held at the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office headquarters. “We need enforcement, data and discipline, prevention and prosecution.”

Two milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal depending on a person’s body size, tolerance and past usage, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Drug dealers mix fentanyl, because of its potency and low cost, with other drugs including heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine, which increases the likelihood of a fatal dose, according to the DEA. It’s possible for someone to take a pill without knowing it contains fentanyl or whether it contains a lethal dose of fentanyl.

High profile criminal cases have involved evidence showing young people using their social media accounts, such as Snapchat, to sell or find fentanyl to buy. Fentanyl can be sold as pills, with some online dealers claiming the pills are Xanax, Percocet and Oxycodone. Fentanyl also can come in powder and vape pens.

“Fentanyl abuse is unique in that it’s pervasive in every demographic in our county,” said Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper. “I’ve been in law enforcement for 33 years now, and I’ve never seen it this bad. It’s not a war on drugs, it’s a war on addiction.”

In the past nine months, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies collaborated in operations in the Sacramento area that seized 196,000 fentanyl pills. The enforcement operations took off the street 114 pounds of fentanyl pills and powder.

“We are not just going after street-level dealers,” the district attorney said. “We are going after the distribution from the cartels.”

Fentanyl-related deaths have been on a decline in Sacramento County since it reached a peak of 404 deaths in 2023, according to the county Coroner’s Office. The number dropped to 275 deaths last year, and 41 deaths had been reported so far this year.

“Fentanyl doesn’t care about whether you live behind a gated community or on the streets, whether you attended Harvard or didn’t even graduate from high school, whether your family has been here for generations or just yesterday,” Ho said. “It doesn’t care about the color of your skin or whether you were young or old.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who also spoke at Thursday’s news conference, said authorities throughout the state since 2022 have seized more than 15 million fentanyl pills and more than 6,700 pounds of fentanyl powder, along with arresting 500 people.

In March in the Southern California town of Downey, authorities arrested a suspect and seized 44 pounds of fentanyl powder, along with 11 pounds of heroin and two pounds of cocaine, Bonta said. During an enforcement operation in February, San Diego County seized 720,000 fentanyl pills, Bonta said, and a January operation led to the arrests of three drug traffickers accused of smuggling 30,000 fentanyl pills across the international border from Mexico into California.

“And these results, of course, they’re not just numbers. Numbers don’t tell the full story,” Bonta told news reporters. “They’re lives saved. They are overdoses prevented. They are families spared from unimaginable grief.”

____