COLORADO, USA — The search is on for the man who police say was caught with more than 100 pounds of fentanyl on Interstate 70.
David Maldonado was arrested nearly three weeks ago, but he was released after agreeing to cooperate with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
Court documents show that not only did Maldonado not cooperate with the DEA, but he also took off and is now a fugitive.
At a press conference on Wednesday, the head of the DEA's Denver office touted some rare good news in the fight against fentanyl.
"To date, this is the largest fentanyl seizure on any U.S. highway involving fentanyl," said Brian Besser, special agent-in-charge of the DEA's Denver Field Division.
About 114 pounds of pure fentanyl powder – enough to kill 25 million people, according to the DEA – was seized from a car on I-70 near Georgetown on its way to South Bend, Indiana.
"I can't underscore enough how significant this seizure was," Besser said.
What the DEA failed to mention was that the driver of the car, the alleged courier of the drugs, is now on the run. According to court documents, 26-year-old Maldonado was released after agreeing to cooperate with the DEA after he was arrested. The plan was that he would "deliver the drugs in hopes of identifying additional members of the criminal organization."
But the court documents say Maldonado did not stick to the plan – that the very next day, "on the way to doing a controlled delivery of the fentanyl, he fled from the DEA, eluded DEA surveillance and removed the tracker from his vehicle."
The DEA declined to talk today about any aspect of the case.
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