NY Post
A “tidal wave” of dangerous synthetic drugs is flooding New York City, with methamphetamines and fentanyl pouring over the U.S. southern border at alarming rates and quickly finding their way into local neighborhoods, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency said. This influx of dangerous drugs is having a deadly impact on the streets of New York, according to an April 30 report from local health officials. “Fentanyl is up, a heroin rise is going on in New Year City and a very new wave that hit New York City is meth,” DEA special agent Ray Donovan told The Post. “We’re seizing a lot more meth than ever before.” He called the surge a “tidal wave.” Meth seizures in New York City skyrocketed more than 200 percent last year, from 244 kilograms in 2019 to 755 kilos in 2020 – a haul with a reported street value of more than $29 million, according to the DEA. Just 28 kilos of meth were impounded as recently as 2012. The amount of fentanyl seized climbed 41 percent, from 254 kilos in 2019 to 359 in 2020. Meth first gained widespread use in rural America in the 1970s as a cheap substitute for cocaine. It remained largely a problem in small-town America until very recently. A 2009 report by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, for example, found 1,571 “clandestine” meth laboratory incidents in largely rural Missouri, and just 14 in New York state.
