A man who New Jersey authorities say had a record-setting amount of the highly addictive painkiller fentanyl has been indicted on drug possession charges.
Yahmire Boardley is also charged with intent to distribute the drug in the indictment that was handed up Monday.
The 23-year-old Camden man allegedly had 31 pounds of fentanyl when he was arrested in March. State Attorney General Christopher Porrino says it's the largest seizure of the drug in state history.
Porrino said the supply could have yielded up to five million lethal doses if sold on the street. Officials say a joint investigation by state and federal authorities found large quantities of the drug were being shipped from China to various locations around Camden.
Boardley's lawyer was not available for comment on Monday.
Fentanyl is a powerful opioid approximately 100 times more potent than heroin. When used illegally, it is often converted to powder form by drug dealers.
The proliferation of opioids continues to claim more lives across the nation than car crashes and homicides. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 142 people die from a drug overdose every day. Half of the deaths are linked to opioids.
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President Donald Trump declared the opioid epidemic a national emergency earlier this month at the urging of the presidential opioid commission. The commission is led by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has focused his last months in office around combating the opioid epidemic.
