An MCPD press release today revealed a major fentanyl bust earlier this week that had 250+ suspected fentanyl pills, handgun, and cash found in car after a stop for a traffic infraction for window tinting.
After getting a warrant to search the suspects residence, MCPD found 1800 more suspected fentanyl pills. In a now deleted Tweet, County Exec Marc Elrich quoted MCPD Chief Marcus Jones saying that “without question, this stop saved lives in our community.”
Proposed STEP Act would have blocked traffic stop
This stop and the reasons for it is very relevant and timely given that less than two weeks ago, it was announced that Montgomery County Councilmembers Will Jawando and Kristin Mink introduced the “Safety and Traffic Equity in Policing (STEP) Act” which would have prevented this stop from ever occurring.
I have received confirmation from government officials that the initial reason for the stop was for window tinting and there are possibly other aspects law that would have impacted this traffic stop and kept these pills (and the weapon) on the streets.
You can see here the incident details from the Montgomery County Public Safety Data
A few days ago, Montgomery Perspective reported that Chief Jones was on TV taking aim at this proposed bill saying:
“Chief Jones: So my opinion is that this is a bad bill, it’s bad legislation. This really does hamper our ability as police officers in the county to address safety issues as it relates to traffic safety and other issues that occur in our county. So I am totally against this bill. I have stated that I believe that this will not make our county safer. It will make it more dangerous.”
Quote from article above from the WJLA video here
Fentanyl Youth Overdoses Increasing
There is no telling how many lives have been saved by getting 2000 fentanyl pills off the street given MCPS’s “One Pill Can Kill” campaign and County Governments focus on this issue. MCPS has also hosted multiple forums related to fentanyl in schools.
Last year in 2022, 11 kids under the age of 18 died in Montgomery County of fentanyl overdoses compared to 5 in 2021 and there was an increase of 77% in both fatal and non fatal overdoses blamed on fentanyl.
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