Two men were arrested after 10,000 suspected fentanyl pills and a small pistol were found in a vehicle during a traffic stop in Eagle County, Colorado.
David Ramos Palma, the 28-year-old driver of the vehicle, and Edwin Armando Aguilar Cruz, the 30-year-old passenger, were arrested on July 26, according to a statement from the Sheriff’s office on Facebook.
Eagle County Sheriff’s Office’s Gore Range Narcotics Interdiction Team (G.R.A.N.I.T.E) intercepted a vehicle at 10.20 a.m. at the traffic stop on I-70 near Avon, according to the statement.
Authorities say that a uniformed deputy then searched the vehicle and discovered a small caliber pistol and an estimated 10,000 pills (1,084 grams), which tested presumptively as fentanyl.
The two men from Ventura, California, are now being held on a $25,000 bond, facing charges of unlawful distribution of a controlled substance, conspiracy, unlawful possession, and two special offender charges.
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Phoenix Division shows one of four containers holding some of the 30,000 fentanyl pills the agency seized in one of its bigger busts in Tempe, Arizona. In Eagle County, G.R.A.N.I.T.E found 10,000 fentanyl pills inside a vehicle after stopping to search it at a traffic stop on July 26.
Drug Enforcement Administration/AP
The Eagle County Sheriff’s Office wrote in the statement, “The G.R.A.N.I.T.E. task force, whose vigilance and dedication to continue to protect Eagle County from the dangers of narcotics, makes us very proud. Their hard work and expertise ensure that our community remains a safe place for all.”
The office also credited the deputy who searched the vehicle, saying their “trained eye and keen instincts quickly detected several signs of criminal activity.”
The G.R.A.N.I.T.E team is a specialized drug task force consisting of local law enforcement partners, detectives from the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office, and the Vail Police Department.
A report by the Common Sense Institute released in June 2024 found that, in 2023, there were over 1,200 drug overdose deaths from fentanyl, 59 percent of which resulted from illegally manufactured fentanyl. The number equates to an average of approximately three deaths per day.
The number of people killed by fentanyl overdoses was also found to be higher than the number of people killed in homicides in Colorado across 2021, 2022, and 2023.
The number of reported seizures of narcotic by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation more than doubled from 2008 (3,367) to 2022 (7,434).
The institute’s findings also showed that, in 2023, the total cost of fentanyl-related overdose deaths in Colorado was around $16 billion, more than 10 times the cost in 2017, which stood at $1.3 billion.
The figure for 2023 is calculated as 3 percent of Colorado’s GDP in 2023.
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