Las Cruces police describe city’s Fentanyl problem as ‘epidemic’

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) -- Police officers who work street crimes in Las Cruces say blue Fentanyl pills are popping up all over the city, causing addiction issues, and a rise in certain crimes.

"We see it in almost every interaction we are involved with as far as the crimes that we're focusing on, which is auto theft or gun violence," said officer Hunter Hodges.

ABC-7 learned that in 2019: 3,292 Fentanyl pills were seized in Doña Ana County. In 2021, that number went up to 22,646, and so far in 2023, more than 50,000 of the pills have been seized.

"A lot of the people that we deal with on the street are addicted and are using these fentanyl pills, some as few as one or 2 every couple of days. And sometimes we run into people that are using as many as 30 in a single day," said officer Benjamin Berling.

He told ABC-7, "Typically, we're looking at about $5 per pill. So then you run into somebody spending up to $150, $200 a day just to feed that habit, which is a huge driver for the property crime here in the Las Cruces area for auto thefts, auto burglaries, residential burglaries, larceny, shoplifting."

Numbers we obtained from the city's website show that while violent crime is down by 36%, non-residential burglaries were up 68% in the first half of 2023.

Auto burglaries were up 8%.

And total property crime was up 2%.

Police believe much of it has to do with fentanyl.

"They come in what's on the street term is known as a boat, which is a 1000 fentanyl pills, which since are so close to the border, that's usually where they're getting manufactured from. But we've also seen an increase in I-10 with Arizona, a bunch of pills coming from Arizona," said officer Brandon Roybal.

ABC-7 asked the city what they're doing to address this issue. They told us in part quote:

"The city realizes this is a complicated issue and we are working with many partners in the community to best figure out how to address it. One of the ways we are looking at it is through the opioid settlement funds."

As we reported several weeks ago, the City of Las Cruces is set to receive more than $9.8 million as part of a national opioid litigation settlement. The money will be paid by about a dozen companies that made, sold or distributed opioid painkillers.

The county said it plans to use the money to help people battling addiction.