A Philadelphia man, Brendaon Fuentes, age 23, has been arrested on allegations of trafficking an extremely dangerous synthetic opioid, carfentanil, along with crack cocaine into Westmoreland County. As reported by WPXI, Fuentes was apprehended in Latrobe after law enforcement officers were tipped off about his arrival from Philadelphia on an Amtrak train to distribute drugs.
According to Triblive, the arrest was made possible through the joint efforts of the Westmoreland County detectives, Latrobe police, and the state Attorney General's Office, who conducted surveillance at the Latrobe train station. Police spotted Fuentes around 8 p.m. as he disembarked carrying two plastic bags and getting into a pickup truck, which was then stopped by the authorities, leading to the seizure of the narcotics.
These bags, upon inspection, were found to contain approximately 1.05 ounces of carfentanil and one ounce of crack cocaine, substances that were concealed with various materials, including soap and Vicks VapoRub in an attempt to mask the scent, "Carfentanil is 100 times stronger than fentanyl; a granule-size of this narcotic – similar to a granule of sand – is powerful enough to kill someone," District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli said, a statement echoed in the reports from Westmoreland Crimewatch PA.
After Fuentes' arrest, which Triblive reported led to him being denied bail, Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday commended the collaborative multi-agency effort "to close a cross-state trafficking pipeline." Latrobe Police Chief Richard Bosco thanked the law enforcement teams for preventing these perilous drugs from infiltrating the streets.
