Fentanyl Seizures Have ‘Skyrocketed’ in Montana Since 2019: State Attorney General

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen in an interview on the "Newsmakers" program on Nov. 3, 2022. NTD

There has been an almost 11,000 percent increase in fentanyl seizures in Montana since 2019, according to the state’s attorney general.

In 2022, the Rocky Mountain High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (RMHIDTA)—a federal program that consists of 30 counties altogether in Colorado, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming—confiscated 206,955 dosage units of fentanyl in The Treasure State, a 10,800 percent increase since 2019, when 1,900 dosage units of the drug were seized.

Last year’s figure is also 146,378 more dosage units than in 2021, or three times more said Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen in a Feb. 24 press release.

Just over 66 percent of the drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2021—the last time drug overdose deaths were reported by the CDC—were due to fentanyl.

“The amount of illicit fentanyl coming across the southern border has skyrocketed. This poison is killing Montanans,” said Knudsen.

“Our narcotics agents and troopers are getting more fentanyl off the roads than ever before, but we need additional tools and resources to keep it out of our communities.”

Fentanyl has been pouring into the United States through the southern border.

At least 14,700 lbs. of the drug was seized there in 2022, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. So far in 2023, at least 12,500 lbs. of the drug were seized at the southern border.

“Fentanyl-linked overdose deaths were also up from 2021. According to preliminary data from the State Crime Lab, there were 74 overdose deaths involving fentanyl in 2022 compared to 49 in 2021—an increase of 51 percent,” according to Knudsen.

“The statewide total is higher, as the crime lab only verifies deaths that involve an autopsy. Fentanyl-linked deaths confirmed by the crime lab increased 1,750 percent from 2017 when there were just four.”

In January, over a 10-day period, “at least 28 Montanans overdosed on drugs, suspected to be fentanyl, killing eight,” Knudsen said.

In the United States, there were 71,238 deaths due to fentanyl, an increase of about 20.8 percent from 2020, when there were 57,834 deaths, according to the CDC.

In addition to fentanyl, the Rocky Mountain area seized 207.37 lbs. of methamphetamine, 7.29 lbs. of heroin, and 22.25 lbs. of cocaine in Montana in 2022.

Additionally, according to Knudsen, there were 474 firearms seized in Montana in 2022, a 25 percent increase from the previous year, when there were 375.

Knudsen, who has been Big Sky Country’s top law enforcement officer since Jan. 4, 2021, has asked the Montana state legislature for “increased investment in public safety” in order “to fund additional narcotics and human trafficking agents, highway patrol troopers, major crimes investigators, and criminal prosecutors,” according to the press release.