Carfentanil and Cyclopropyl Fentanyl, two fatally potent synthetic drugs, have been recovered for the first time in Monmouth County, Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced.
The drugs, which were recovered in separate police investigations in Long Branch and Holmdel this year and recently identified by New Jersey State Police lab testing, were illicitly manufactured into pill form and imprinted with markings A/215, simulating oxycodone tablets, according to a press release.
“The arrival of Carfentanil and Cyclopropyl Fentanyl is bad news for everybody, especially those suffering with an opiate addiction in Monmouth County. Although these counterfeit pills appear to be oxycodone, they can have deadly consequences,” Gramiccioni said. “If you are buying these pills on the street, you are playing a deadly version of Russian roulette.”
Carfentanil is a powerful synthetic opiate that is 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more potent than fentanyl, according to the press release.
A single granule of Carfentanil, which has been approved only for veterinary uses, can be deadly to humans. The drug is so toxic that a recent U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration safety alert has been issued to law enforcement officers and first responders who may be exposed to Carfentanil as a result of accidental physical contact or inhalation.
Cyclopropyl Fentanyl, another fentanyl derivative, is intended for neither human or veterinarian use and has been linked to a rash of fatal overdoses in Georgia earlier this summer, according to the prosecutor.