DENVER — The Drug Enforcement Administration reported a recent increase in at-home fentanyl production in the Denver metro area, highlighted by a large scale bust at an Aurora home last month.
Police and federal agencies executed a search warrant May 1 at a home near South Olathe Street and East Colorado Avenue, where hazmat crews found pill-pressing machines inside the home, according to the DEA.
David Olesky, acting special agent in charge for the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Field Division, helped Denver Police and Aurora Police execute the warrant. He said the scale of the fentanyl operation in the quiet neighborhood was "surreal."
“It’s just another aspect of this fentanyl aspect that we’re seeing that’s impacting our communities,” he said.
Multiple people were arrested on unrelated warrants, and forensic testing continues on the drugs reportedly found inside the home.
“Recently, we’ve seen a number of cases specifically here in the metro Denver area where individuals were taking fentanyl powder and pressing it into pills,” Olesky said. “One of these presses can generate hundreds if not thousands of pills an hour.”
The presses and filler powder remain easy to find on the internet, Olesky said.
“The reason they’re doing it is about the money," he said. "So, they still see it as being more profitable, and willing to risk their lives in the comfort of their home to be pressing these pills to make money.”
Earlier this year, the DEA issued a letter to e-commerce companies asking them to keep records on people purchasing pill-presses online.
“We found that one of the No. 1 selling binders out there is the blue colored binder that’s used in what, manufacturing fentanyl,” Olesky said. “The pressing of pills here in the United States and here in Colorado is another dangerous trend that people don’t think about.”
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