The DEA is warning that a new deadly drug 100 times more powerful than fentanyl was discovered in Long Island during a narcotics raid last month — and could already be in the streets for sale.
A new form of nitazene — a deadly synthetic opioid that is Narcan-resistant and already causing a wave of overdose deaths throughout the country — was seized by agents during a Hicksville raid in August and was discovered for the first time in the Northeast, the agency revealed.
“It’s alarming. We haven’t come across this compound anywhere in the entire Northeast,” Special Agent Frank Tarentino said of the new type of nitazene.
Anthony Gianatiempo, 34, of Hicksville, was arrested after agents and Nassau detectives raided his home on Aug. 5 — seizing a pack of counterfeit oxycodone “M30” pills cut with the never-before-seen nitazene compound.
Aside from the first-of-its-kind drugs, the DEA also seized 59 fentanyl pills, 47 pressed methamphetamine tablets, 10 glass vials of liquid fentanyl, 750 grams of fentanyl powder, 190 grams of cocaine, and 200 grams of methamphetamine, officials said.
“This didn’t just magically appear in a Hicksville home — it was trafficked here by criminal networks,” Tarentino said.
Authorities believe the new pills were either smuggled in from Mexico by the Sinaloa or Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or pressed locally using raw powder exported to the U.S. by Chinese criminal networks.
This new nitazene picked up in the raid on Gianatiempo was tested and confirmed to be 100 times stronger than fentanyl, Tarentino said.
“This is laboratory confirmed,” Tarentino said about the pills and its potency. “Our Northeast Regional Laboratory conducts that analysis, and they are the ones that tell us exactly what is in these pills.”
Along with the drugs, agents and detectives also found an arsenal of explosives inside Gianatiempo’s home — including five suspected bombs and more than 30 pounds of smokeless gunpowder.
Gianatiempo was arraigned Aug. 6 in First District Court in Hempstead on multiple narcotics, weapons, and explosives charges.
He has pleaded not guilty and has been held without bail since.
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