On Wednesday, Governor Newsom announced that California Highway patrol officers have seized 4.2 kilograms of fentanyl — as well as smaller amounts of cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine — in their first six weeks of deployment in San Francisco. They have also made more than 90 arrests.
According to Custodio Lopez, an officer with the CHP, most of the seizures have come from traffic stops. “Since May 1st, we’ve been down in the Tenderloin district where we have CHP officers that are enforcing traffic violations, or pulling over a car that has a vehicle code violation," Lopez said.
The seizures are part of Newsom’s larger goal to combat the opioid crisis in California. CHP’s deployment in San Francisco is part of a new partnership between the Patrol and the California National Guard that Newsom announced last month.
Newsom said he was proud of the “lifesaving efforts” of the CHP to shut down drug distribution in the Tenderloin neighborhood, where most of the drugs were seized.
