Coast man had enough fentanyl in his home to kill 500,000 people, agent says
A Moss Point man had enough fentanyl in his home to kill about half a million people, nearly 14 percent of Mississippi’s population, a federal agent said.
The man had 833 grams of what appeared to be powdered cocaine and 99 tablets of what appeared to be Oxycodone, but lab tests showed both contained fentanyl, officials said in a news release.
Dale Ricardo Easterling Sr., 43, had 416,525 doses of fentanyl in powdered form, according to Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Derryle Smith.
“Fentanyl is the most prevalent and the most significant threat to the United States, including here in Mississippi, where as little as two milligrams of fentanyl is a lethal dose to one person,” said Smith.
Two milligrams is about the amount of powder in a packet of sweetener.
“This seizure, which was almost one kilogram, has saved countless lives — it was enough fentanyl to kill approximately half a million people. DEA will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to aggressively pursue those who ruthlessly traffic this and other dangerous drugs,” Smith said.
The synthetic opioid is 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine, Smith said, adding that some drug dealers who sell heroin lace their product with fentanyl, so buyers have no idea that they could overdose and die.
Easterling also had 99 pills that were improperly marked as Oxycodone but contained fentanyl, acetaminophen and a painkiller known as metamizole, Smith said.
The deadly pills showed up in Gulfport and surrounding areas in April, prompting police Chief Leonard Papania to tell people who take the pills, “You are going to die.”
Harrison County leads the state in the number of opioid deaths.
A search of Easterling’s home on July 13 also found six pounds of marijuana, four pounds of marijuana brownies, a .45-caliber pistol and $10,000, Smith said.
The FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force recovered the drugs by getting a search warrant after Easterling was arrested the same day by Louisiana State Police. Seven kilos (or 16.48 pounds) of cocaine were found in a hidden compartment he was driving, officials said.
“The FBI and our partners want to warn the public of the dangers of fentanyl and encourage opioid users to dispose of opioids purchased illegally,” said Christopher Freeze, special agent in charge of the FBI in Mississippi.
Several places around the state, including in South Mississippi, have prescription drop-box locations where anyone can drop off unused or unwanted prescriptions with no questions asked. For an online list of locations, go to standupms.org/learn/resources/.
The DEA also has a list of drop-box locations online at www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/.
Synthetic opioids, mostly fentanyl, cause more overdose deaths than prescribed opioids, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Synthetic opioids were the root of nearly 50 percent of opioid-related deaths in 2016. That’s an increase from 14 percent in 2010.
Robin Fitzgerald, 228-896-2307, @robincrimenews
This story was originally published August 31, 2018 at 4:33 PM.