CHP Seizes Enough Fentanyl To Kill Every Person In SF Nearly 3 Times

SAN FRANCISCO — Governor Gavin Newsom announced Thursday, June 15, that in the six weeks since the launch of a public safety partnership between the state and the city of San Francisco, the California Highway Patrol seized enough fentanyl in the city to potentially kill over 2.1 million people.

Newsom announced the early operation metrics from the California Highway Patrol along with updates from the California National Guard and additional administration action to improve public safety and address blight in the city, a news release issued by the governor's office said.

Newsom said in six weeks the agency has seized over 4.2 kilos of fentanyl in the Tenderloin and the immediate surrounding area of San Francisco.

"The amount of fentanyl CHP seized is enough to potentially kill 2.1 million people — the entire population of San Francisco nearly three times over," the news release said.

A lethal dose of fentanyl is 2 milligrams according to the Food and Drug Administration.

"I’m proud of the CHP and CalGuard’s lifesaving efforts to shut down the Tenderloin’s poison pipeline and hold drug traffickers accountable," Newsom said. "These early results show promise and serve as a call to action: we must do more to clean up San Francisco’s streets, help those struggling with substance use, and eradicate fentanyl from our neighborhoods."

Launched by Newsom on May 1, 2023, the joint public safety operation in San Francisco is a collaborative effort between multiple agencies focused on targeting fentanyl trafficking, disrupting the supply of the drug in the city, and holding the operators of drug trafficking rings accountable.

The San Francisco Police Department took to Twitter to announce the results of its partnership with the CHP, including the department's own seizure of 61.5 kilos of fentanyl to date.

Since the May 1 launch of the partnership, the CHP also seized over 957 grams of methamphetamine, 319 grams of cocaine, and 31 grams of heroin and made 92 felony and misdemeanor arrests, including on charges related to possession of fentanyl, illegal firearm possession, driving under the influence, and domestic violence.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed praised the partnership with her own tweet about the fentanyl seizures.

Our coordinated work to shut down drug markets requires strong partnerships between local and state government. @SFPD increased fentanyl seizures by 170% year over year. CHP’s work to get fentanyl off the street expands on this work and helps support SFPD: https://t.co/ifPQrSWlYB
— London Breed (@LondonBreed) June" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/LondonBree... 15, 2023

According to the governor's news release, the operation builds on the Newsom's plan for tackling the fentanyl and opioid crisis, which includes "an expansion of CalGuard-supported operations that last year led to a 594% increase in seized fentanyl and historic levels of funding — $1 billion statewide — to crack down on the crisis."

As part of the partnership, CalGuard has also increased its support to the San Francisco Fentanyl Task Force with six analysts, in addition to the fourteen analysts assigned to the NorCal High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas task force, the governor's office said.

According to the news release, CalGuard is providing critical analysis and technical support to law enforcement to shut down drug trafficking operations in the city and the surrounding region as part of the operation.

CalGuard will continue to map crime syndicate networks and assist local agencies build large-scale cases against those who are caught dealing fentanyl and other drugs. As cases continue to develop, metrics quantifying CalGuard’s impact will be made available.

"This is progress, but we have a lot more work to do to make our neighborhoods safer," Breed said.