By Natalia Rueda 
Colombian authorities have seized the largest shipment of fentanyl ever found in the country, coming from a parcel delivery company in the municipality of Soledad, Atlántico, and arriving on Thursday to the dispatch headquarters of El Poblado district, southeast of the capital of Antioquia.
The box contained 300 ampoule doses of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. While this drug is available for medical treatment, especially for cancer patients and chronic pain relief, its transport suggests it could be a supply for drug trafficking networks, particularly as the Medellin Flower Fair is beginning, with thousands of visitors and daily parties.
At the black market, an original dose of fentanyl is sold between $300,000 and $500,000, estimated to have a maximum value of $150 million. The investigation is now focused on tracking down who intended to pick up the package.
The incredible potency of fentanyl and its increasing availability has resulted in unprecedented levels of overdose deaths in the United States in 2020 – 91,799 in total – with 56,516 deaths attributed to synthetic opioids other than methadone, and 19,447 due to cocaine. Fentanyl’s lethality relative to other drugs is such that only 13,165 deaths were due to heroin overdose last year.
The 163 light bulb shipment detected last May in the town of Kennedy, Bogotá, is the second largest fentanyl shipment found in Colombia prior to this one. Officials are using the most pervasive technologies to detect and interdict drug shipments, and are doing their best to reduce the deadly opioid epidemic faced by the United States.