Woman Arrested With Enough Fentanyl to Kill 1 Million People Had 4-Year-Old Daughter in Vehicle

A woman was arrested while in possession of 2 kilograms of fentanyl in her car, and officials say her 4-year-old daughter was in the car as well.

The Durham County Sheriff's Office arrested 24-year-old Karen Garcia Euceda after she was stopped while driving in Durham, North Carolina, on Tuesday, reported WNCN.

Her car was searched, and officials reportedly found 2 kilograms of fentanyl. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, one kilogram of fentanyl is enough to kill up to 500,000 people.

Euceda has been charged with two counts of trafficking and misdemeanor child abuse and is being held on a $100,000 bond. Her child has been placed in the custody of a family member, reported WNCN.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid and prescription drug, is being distributed across the country and sold on the illegal drug market.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), fentanyl is similar to morphine, but nearly 100 times more potent.

The drug is also being seized more in 2021 than any previous year as smugglers attempt to bring it across the border into the United States.

States along the border, mainly Texas, California, and New Mexico, have seen an uptick in fentanyl smuggling, and Texas U.S. Customs and Border Patrol recently cited seizing nearly 3,000 pounds of it in the month of April.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott told Fox News on Monday, "The Texas Department of Public Safety patrols the border every single day and they've seen an 800 percent increase in the amount of fentanyl coming across the border. They seized, this year, enough fentanyl to kill every man, woman and child in the state of New York."

In New Mexico, Assistant District Attorney Russell Warren says that the drugs he always saw in cases were heroin and meth, but fentanyl has become more prevalent recently.

"It's almost like the drug users that were addicted to opioids switched to fentanyl because it's more powerful or it's just more available," he told The Santa Fe New Mexican.

He added, "It's really scary the amount of people driving around in Santa Fe with trafficking levels of narcotics, especially fentanyl."

The drug was typically used to treat cancer patients or patients with severe chronic pain, but fentanyl has now been seen all over the U.S. as the main driver in drug overdose deaths. In 2019, NIDA reported more than 36,000 deaths due to overdose with synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl.

Newsweek reached out to Durham County Sheriff's Office for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.