Fentanyl Bust Leads To Arrest of Sioux Falls Man

A multi-agency fentanyl bust in Sioux Falls netted an arrest of a 24-year-old man for multiple drug charges including distribution.

On Tuesday, the Sioux Falls Area Drug Task Force and the South Dakota Highway Patrol executed a search warrant for a hotel on West Russell Street, Dakota News Now reports. Police say a tip that someone dealing drugs in a hotel room lead to the issuing of the warrant.

Police found Jacob Clayton Winters in a car near the hotel and placed him under arrest. As police searched the vehicle they found a methamphetamine pipe, scales, and other drug paraphernalia.

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Police then searched Winters' hotel room and found 27 grams of fentanyl in four baggies. A pill bottle with 50 pressed pills that police believe is fentanyl was also found along with an amount of marijuana.

Police are working to make more arrests as the investigation of this case continues.

Sioux Falls Police Lt. Randy Brink told Dakota News Now that fentanyl is uncommon in Sioux Falls and the department is working hard to keep illegal use of the drug out of Sioux Falls.

According to the CDC, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, approved for treating severe pain in advanced cancer patients. It is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and provides a heroin-like effect.

Most fentanyl-related overdoses and death in the U.S. can be linked directly to illegally made fentanyl. When mixed with heroin and/or cocaine it increases the euphoric effects.

Illegal fentanyl use is on the rise nationwide. Overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids like fentanyl were nearly 12 times higher in 2019 than in 2013.