LAWRENCE, MASS. (WHDH) - The Special Agent in Charge at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) New England Division is working to get dangerous, synthetic pills off the streets, as drug traffickers transition from plant-based drugs to synthetic ones.
Jarod Forget says pills that look like Adderall, but are actually methamphetamine mixed with fentanyl, are on the rise.
“The prevalence of these online are fearful, not only as a Special Agent in Charge of this area, but as a father,” said Jarod Forget, the Special Agent in Charge of DEA New England.
Forget says even he cannot tell the difference just by looking at the pills; the drugs must go through extensive laboratory testing to be identified.
He says people mistaking the pills for something they are not could be fatal.
“They look online looking to get an Adderall, thinking they are getting an Adderall, but little do they know they are being tricked into consuming a fake Adderall and that’s exactly what’s happening,” Forget said.
The DEA says a prominent Mexican cartel called Sinaloa is to blame.
Forget says the cartel is bringing these drugs directly to Lawrence, where they’re being distributed throughout the region.
“We’ll see them in New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island. We know by looking at those drugs that it came from drug traffickers in the Lawrence, Massachusetts area,” Forget said.
The DEA New England Division is working as part of a worldwide effort to stop the cartel, which Forget says is pushing the drugs online and on social media, in different sizes, shapes, and colors.
“It’s a scary world out there now, and what keeps me up at night is people that don’t know what they’re taking are being tricked into consuming something that they had no intention,” Forget said.
Forget said the DEA’s latest crackdown resulted in more than 500 pounds of drugs seized from New England, and more than 170 arrests.
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