Pa. state police seized $65 million worth of illegal drugs last year

Pennsylvania State Police troopers got more than $65 million worth of illegal drugs off streets across the commonwealth in 2022, according to a report released Wednesday.

That includes 547 pounds of cocaine and 348 pounds of fentanyl, with a combined street value of $20.9 million.

State troopers in Westmoreland County did their part in 2022 to contribute to those totals.

In August, a New Jersey man was arrested after, police said, he exchanged $50,000 worth of deadly opioid fentanyl with an undercover trooper in New Stanton. Investigators reported receiving 5,000 stamp bags of the drug in a grocery bag.

Fentanyl, an opioid deadlier than heroin, has been the top killer in fatal Westmoreland County accidental drug overdoses since 2016, according to coroner statistics. In 2021, it contributed to 137 of the 168 deaths, and 2022 statistics through Nov. 1 show 78% of the county’s 68 drug overdose deaths were fentanyl-related.

The following month, state police reported they seized about $1 million worth of cocaine after a traffic stop on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Mt. Pleasant Township. Police said the Washington state man apparently had taken a cross-country flight that landed in Philadelphia. About 26 pounds of the drug was found in a duffel bag in the SUV he was driving westbound, authorities said.

In addition to the statewide fentanyl and cocaine amounts, troopers seized 60 pounds of heroin worth $2 million, 692 pounds of methamphetamine valued at nearly $7 million and 7,800 pounds of processed marijuana with a street value of $23.5 million, according to state police statistics.

In 2021, troopers statewide confiscated 986 pounds of cocaine and 552 pounds of fentanyl. That year, they reported seizing $72 million worth of illegal drugs.