Copyright CBS News
While deaths within Los Angeles County linked to fentanyl are declining, the synthetic opioid is still a leading cause of death among 18 to 40-year-olds, according to county officials. Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman and Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna led a Tuesday news conference to warn of the "silent assassin in the community," referring to fentanyl, ahead of the Halloween holiday. Hochman said that drug dealers in the past have used candy to transport and disguise fentanyl, which is "killing at least eight people in this county every single day. It kills more unhoused people than anything else out there," he said. In 2024, LA County recorded 2,438 drug overdose deaths, marking a 22% countywide decline from the 3,137 deaths in 2023. "The collaboration of law enforcement, health agencies, and communities working together is a testament to the decline in fentanyl deaths," Luna said. Many who have died from fentanyl poisoning may not have realized they were ingesting it. Hochman said the Mexican cartel laces fentanyl into all different types of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, and heroin -- and it's laced into counterfeit pills, such as Adderall, Xanax, Percocet, and Oxycodone. The Sheriff's Department seized more than 1 million fentanyl pills, along with an additional 250 pounds of fentanyl powder in 2024, according to Luna. So far, in 2025, he said over 560,000 fentanyl pills, as well as 129 pounds of fentanyl powder, have been seized by the department. "These numbers reveal how much fentanyl is flowing through our communities, unfortunately," Luna said. "Every pill seized is a potential life, and we are beginning to see the impact in the decline of overdose deaths so far." Hochman noted some recent prosecutions involving fentanyl possession for sale and overdose deaths, including a Winnetka mother who was sentenced to 18 years in state prison for the 2024 deaths of her 3-year-old twins, who ingested fentanyl they found in her purse. Another instance Hochman highlighted was that of a 36-year-old Lancaster man, who is awaiting sentencing for the death of a victim who received fentanyl by way of a drone drop off. If convicted of all charges, including one count of distribution of fentanyl resulting in death, he would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
