DETROIT – Detroit’s Police Chief and the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Special Agent in Charge in Detroit said they wanted to go old school. So, they laid it all out on a table. Literally.
Gold jewelry. Wads of rubber‑banded cash. Bagged cocaine. Crack in every stage and form. Capsules. And, at the center of it all, the deadly powder that has changed the face of the overdose crisis: fentanyl.
“We’re talking about fentanyl, crack cocaine, cash,” Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison said, standing over the seized haul. “And we’re just getting started.”
The table had an estimated street value of more than a half a million dollars -- not including the wads of crumpled cash.
“You’re looking at approximately 1,123 grams of crack cocaine. You’re looking at 570 grams of crack cocaine. 350 grams of fentanyl,” said Special Agent in Charge Joseph Dixon of DEA Detroit. “That 350 grams of fentanyl is 170,000 lives.”
Bettison called one of the targets, John R and McNichols, an “open drug market.” That’s one of the hot spots where Detroit Police and DEA Detroit said they are now, almost angrily and relentlessly, “laser‑focusing on narcotics enforcement.”
DPD and the DEA said anywhere there’s a user, there’s a dealer -- whether that be over the phone, on a street corner or at a house. Bettison said they’re specifically targeting so‑called “Dial‑a‑Dope” operations -- what he compares to “Uber Eats for drugs,” where dealers take orders over the phone and deliver narcotics like fast food.
Earlier this week, Bettison said, they even had “a major bust” inside a senior citizen building.
“I’m going to be very clear,” Dixon said. “If you peddle poison in our communities, we’re going to come after you. We’re going to find you. We’re going to arrest you.”
“And we’re going to take you down,” Bettison said.
DPD and DEA Detroit said their joint task force is going to “increase,” and they plan to dedicate even more resources to narcotics enforcement, though they haven’t said how many officers or agents that will involve.
Detroit Police and DEA Detroit said they depend on your tips. Call: 313‑224‑DOPE or visit dea.gov and submit a tip.