FARIBAULT, Minn. – Police with a sniffing K9 found 3,000 pills, likely fentanyl, they say, in a backpack in a car’s rear seat. The car had been stopped for a registration issue. Arrested were Christopher Payne, 31, and Kaley Wethern, 31. There were two backpacks in the rear. One contained a handgun and a glass smoking pipe, police said. The other backpack, they said, was packed with 3,000 blue and gray fentanyl pills. This was May 13. The next day, armed with a search warrant, drug agents searched their house in the 500 block of Sixth Street Northwest in Faribault. The agents reported finding a of methamphetamine and a document warning customers that Narcan might help reverse the effects of an overdose.
Fentanyl profile
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine. Its authorized use is pain management for cancer patients. Because of its powerful opioid properties, fentanyl has become a drug for abuse. Overdosing is problematic and can be fatal. Most illicit U.S. fentanyl is manufactured in Mexico.