While it may not be the most wide­ly con­sumed drug in Flori­da, the num­ber of fa­tal­i­ties caused by fen­tanyl has prompt­ed a large-scale se­cu­ri­ty re­sponse across sev­er­al ter­ri­to­ries.

Speak­ing with re­porters at the Drug En­force­ment Ad­min­is­tra­tion’s (DEA) Mi­a­mi lab­o­ra­to­ry on Mon­day, di­rec­tor Allen Cat­ter­ton said the po­ten­cy of fen­tanyl and its pop­u­lar­i­ty among ad­dicts pose a ma­jor threat to the US.

DEA of­fi­cials es­ti­mat­ed that fen­tanyl makes up on­ly 20 per cent of drugs seized an­nu­al­ly in Flori­da, while co­caine re­mains the most wide­ly con­fis­cat­ed nar­cot­ic.