Why FBI supports Utah’s law enforcement forces in the fight against fentanel

Salt Lake City – Fentanil is now the most common drug involved in oversized deaths in Utah, according to Utah’s health officials. The application of the law does everything they can to try to stop the flow of fentanil in our communities, and now FBI supports this effort.

Drug prohibition is not usually associated with FBI, but federal officials say fentanil is now a national crisis that involves gangs, weapons and immigration. Therefore, agents use their federal resources to help local law enforcement.

Over 600 Utahns died due to drug overdoses in 2023, with almost half of these cases involving Fentanil.

Rhys Williams, who is the special assistant agent responsible for the FBI Salt Lake division calls him a serious problem: “Here, in Utah, we see an extraordinary amount of fentanil! Yes, the tsunami hit it for sure! ”

Williams has been with the office for more than two decades. He says that the recent Fentanil flood in the country and in the hive state is amazing. In 2023, Utah agents confiscated about 900,000 fentanel pills. “In 2024, only last year, this increased to 1.8 million fentanel pills,” Williams said.

And the problem does not seem to slow down. Even this month, the US lawyer in Utah sent two fentanel -related indictments. In each case, the agents confiscated at least 10 kilograms of the drug.

“It is everywhere, it is in our schools, our universities and our colleges from all over the country,” said Williams. “Many people know family members, friends who have been affected by this scourge.”

Williams says FBI has to attend and support local working groups such as Wasatch subway and major Utah drug teams and major crime teams. “We are hyper-concentrated on gangs and drugs because of the effect it has on our communities,” Williams explained. “Usually, money and drugs are equal to a weapon and vice versa … There are always weapons.”

For Williams, the law enforcement team is critical. In addition to collaborating with local law enforcement, FBI partners with DEA ​​and ICE agents. Already this year, 27 of the suspects who were arrested for treating Fentanil also proved to be in the US illegal.