Massachusetts Man Accused of Hiring Uber to Deliver 10kg of Fentanyl Across State Lines

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent checks an automobile at the U.S.-Mexico border in a file photograph. Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images

A Massachusetts man allegedly hired an Uber to deliver fentanyl across state lines before being intercepted and arrested by law enforcement officers, the Department of Justice said on Sept. 27.

Johan M. Rodriguez, 37, of Lawrence, Massachusetts was arrested in Dover on Sept. 26. He has been charged with one count of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances, specifically, fentanyl, U.S. attorney Jane E. Young said.

Prosecutors allege that Rodriguez used the ride-sharing service to travel from Lawrence, Massachusetts, to a residence in Dover on Sept. 26 to drop off approximately ten kilograms of fentanyl for a Lawrence-based drug supplier.

Law enforcement officers were surveilling Rodriguez as he took a toolbox and tool bag out from the trunk of the Uber vehicle and carried them to the door of the residence.

Officers then intercepted him at the door of the home and discovered he was carrying approximately ten kilograms of suspected fentanyl that had been packed into individual bundles ready for distribution, prosecutors said.

Rodriguez is scheduled to appear in court in the District of New Hampshire on Tuesday.

The Epoch Times has contacted Uber for comment.

Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. As little as two milligrams is potentially enough to be lethal.

The drug was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat acute pain and is extremely addictive.

Mexican cartels are known to import fentanyl from China before pressing it into pills or mixing it into other counterfeit pills made to look like Xanax, Adderall, or Oxycodone. The drugs are then sold to unaware buyers.

‘Weapon Of Mass Destruction’

Officials have said that synthetic opioids like fentanyl are contributing to a major increase in overdose deaths in the United States and Republican lawmakers have cited President Biden’s lax immigration policies as contributing to the increase in fentanyl sales across the country.

In July, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody sent a letter urging Biden to designate fentanyl a “weapon of mass destruction” due to the soaring number of Americans losing their life to the drug.

Provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC’s) National Center for Health Statistics shows that 107,622 Americans died from a drug overdose or poisoning in 2021, marking an increase of nearly 15 percent from the 93,655 deaths estimated in 2020.

The drug is now the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45, according to Families Against Fentanyl. Fentanyl poisoning has claimed more lives than COVID-19, suicide, car accidents, and cancer in 2020, the group said.

In September, Moody was joined by 17 attorneys general; both Republicans and Democrats, in requesting the weapon of mass destruction classification from Biden.

“Treating this solely as a narcotics control problem has failed to curb the proliferation of increasing quantities of chemicals that can cause a mass casualty event. Your own DEA Administrator has called fentanyl ‘the deadliest threat [the DEA] ha[s] ever seen.’ We should treat it as such—thus bold action must be taken,” the AGs wrote.

“We must not sit idly by until a terrorist chooses to inflict harm using this substance on a large group of Americans—our countrymen are already dying from this poison. We cannot wait for tragedy to strike when proactive steps can be taken now to preserve American lives. We urge you, take immediate and decisive action and declare fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction.”