By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Throw the conspiracy theories out the window. Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir said the current drug trade, like most other businesses, is all about the profit margin. A rise in fentanyl cases is likely because of the cheap nature of the drug. Last Wednesday, Barton County deputies found approximately one pound of suspected fentanyl during a traffic stop on an out-of-state driver. Bellendir said the drug puts everyone at risk.
"Fentanyl is nothing to play with," he said. "This is bad, bad stuff in the most pure states. It is here. It is not going away. We are now seeing fentanyl in everything. We see cocaine that tests positive for fentanyl. We see methamphetamine that has fentanyl in it. Part of the reason is it's just cheap. We are awash in fentanyl in this country. I don't see any end to it anytime soon."
Bellendir and other law enforcement officials know they are merely scraping the surface of the drug trade, which has changed dramatically over the past two decades. Bellendir said poorly-manufactured methamphetamine used to be the primary drug found in Barton County. Fentanyl is now a close second or has even surpassed meth.
"Years ago, when you looked at methamphetamine, it was a yellowish, brownish, whitish, chunky, really crappy-looking stuff," he said. "Now, we see methamphetamine, for a while it was pure white. You had a hard time telling the difference between cocaine and meth. Now, we're actually seeing the crystalline consitently."
Last Thursday's traffic stop on the western edge of Great Bend resulted in the arrest of 54-year-old Lisa Gomez of Sioux City, N.M. Along with fentanyl, deputies confiscated methamphetamine, oxycodone, and drug paraphernalia.