MARANA, Ariz. — The Arizona Department of Public Safety has arrested two men accused of transporting more than 70 pounds of fentanyl pills along Interstate 10 near Marana.
On Thursday, state troopers stopped a pickup truck near milepost 231 and discovered 34 pounds of fentanyl pills inside the vehicle. DPS arrested the truck's driver, 30-year-old Mario Osuna of California, for drug charges.
As a result of this stop, DPS investigators obtained a warrant to search another vehicle allegedly driven by Kevin Valdez, 27, of New River, Ariz.
The second truck allegedly had 37 pounds of fentanyl pills, 8 pounds of methamphetamine, 7 pounds of heroin, and 4.95 pounds of an unknown substance, DPS said.
Valdez was also taken into custody on suspicion of transporting narcotic drugs for sale.
The estimated value of the drugs seized from both trucks is over $1.7 million.
Police departments throughout Arizona have been cracking down on distributors of fentanyl pills in recent months as the narcotic becomes more profitable for drug cartels.
DPS Director Heston Silbert said the increasing presence of fentanyl pills in Arizona has become a major public safety issue.
"We have a new drug, and this one - in my opinion - is to an extent more insidious, because it's more subtle," Silbert said. "A pill doesn't have the stigma that, say, a needle or a glass pipe has. It doesn't take a lot for somebody to put a pill in their mouth."
RELATED: DEA agents in Arizona are seizing more potentially deadly counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl
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