LOS ANGELES—While the COVID-19 pandemic causing bars, clubs, and other late-night meeting places to close, online sales of counterfeit pills containing the synthetic opioid fentanyl exploded, killing more than 1,600 people in Los Angeles County last year, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official said Nov. 21.
Fentanyl poisoning is killing the region’s residents, particularly young people, on an unprecedented level, according to the department’s Special Agent in Charge Bill Bodner.
Using social media, drug dealers market, sell, buy and arrange delivery of the deadly fake prescription pills, just like other goods or services, he said.
“During COVID, sales moved online,” Bodner told reporters at a news conference in downtown Los Angeles to discuss the fentanyl crisis and the response from federal law enforcement agencies….