In what the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is describing as one of their biggest arrests in years, authorities recovered eight pounds of methamphetamine from a Columbus apartment and detained two people.
DEA agents in collaboration with officers from the Ohio State Highway Patrol raided the Columbus apartment on Wednesday. Inside, more meth was discovered than the DEA had ever found in a single arrest in Central Ohio.
According to DEA public information officer Brian McNeal although fentanyl “reigns supreme” in the state this is the “largest methamphetamine seizure they’ve seen in central Ohio in years.”
Throughout the full course of the investigation to date, the DEA seized a total of 18 pounds of methamphetamine and fentanyl and seized eight pounds of methamphetamine on Wednesday alone. The DEA noted that they found crystal methamphetamine in shard which they consider to be 99 percent pure.
Pseudoephedrine, a decongestant, was a key component of American meth manufacture in the early 2000s. The Combat Methamphetamine Act, passed by Congress in 2005, increased sales monitoring of pseudoephedrine. As a result, drug production declined within the United States and Mexican drug cartels increased their methamphetamine output to compensate.
According to McNeal, the old version of methamphetamine produced in the U.S. was not very potent and very expensive. The drugs produced by the cartels, however, are incredibly refined and dangerous.
“Traditionally when people think of crystal meth think of someone using pseudoephedrine to make meth out in the middle of a farm field. If you got it to 20 percent purity you would be considered a good cook. Now, super labs in Mexico are producing it at over 95 percent purity and they are making so much of it, it’s super cheap. The drug cartels are trying to establish new markets they are the ones responsible for pushing this into the region,” McNeal told The Ohio Star.
The DEA said that the two men arrested had ties to a Mexican cartel but were selling illicit drugs in central Ohio.
Authorities said that they hope that making these arrests will significantly reduce the flow of drugs into Ohio neighborhoods.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, methamphetamine is a powerful, highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. Crystal methamphetamine is the strongest form and most pure form of methamphetamine. The lethal dose of methamphetamine is 200 milligrams (mg). However, there have been deaths under lower doses than 200 mg.
The Center for Disease Control states that in recent years, methamphetamine-involved overdoses have increased in the United States across many demographic groups. In 2020, 2.5 million Americans aged 12 or older reported having used methamphetamine in the past year. From 2015-2018, an estimated 1.6 million U.S. adults aged less than or equal to 18 years, on average, reported past-year methamphetamine use
According to Harm Reduction Ohio, meth overdose deaths in Ohio have seen a drastic uptick from 28 annual deaths in 2011 up to 1,393 annual methamphetamine-related deaths in 2021.
McNeal said that the DEA continues using the gathered intelligence to further the investigation and get more drugs off the streets.
“This is part of an ongoing investigation and we continue to work with the intelligence gained to further the investigation,” McNeal told The Ohio Star.
According to Attorney General Dave Yost the Ohio Organized Crime Investigation Commission seized over $64 million of illicit substances last year and eliminating Ohio’s drug trafficking industry will inevitably save lives.
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Crystal Meth” by Radspunk. CC BY-SA 2.0.
