More Than 23,000 Illegal Pills Seized In Marietta Opioid Bust

MARIETTA, GA -- A local man has been arrested after several local and national law enforcement agencies arrested him with more than 23,000 prescription pills, most synthetic opioids, were allegedly found in his possession. Don Johnson, 40, was arrested on May 31, by Marietta police, who were working with Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. postal inspectors and Customs and Border Protection agents.

The operation started several weeks ago when large amounts of pills were shipped from Germany to Marietta. Police said they found evidence the plan was for the pills to be repackaged for smaller sales in the U.S.

Johnson was arrested with thousands of Tramadol, a synthetic opioid, and Soma, an addictive muscle relaxant, pills in his possession, police said. A total of 23,190 pills were confiscated including Tramadol, Soma, Alprazolam and Diazepam.

U.S. health officials have said there were more than 70,000 drug overdose deaths in 2017 — about 21.7 per 100,000 people. From 1999-2017, nearly 218,000 Americans died of opioid overdoses, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.