The Jefferson county sheriff's office is keeping its eye out for fentanyl after a Silsbee man and woman were arrested in Beaumont on Monday.
The Jefferson county sheriff's office arrested 54-year-old Clifford Cole and 37-year-old Amber Hayden for drug possession after they went to pick up a package filled with Fentanyl at UPS in Beaumont.
Deputies said Clifford was picking up 80 tiny packages of fentanyl patches that was worth up to $10,000.
Investigators said they believe the package was shipped from Florida.
"They’ll take it and extract the fentanyl out of the patches and get rid of the gel part of it so they have a more concentrated base of the fentanyl," said Jefferson County Deputy Marcus McLellan.
McLellan said this is the first time deputies have seen the drug in the county.
“You can inject, drink it, and snort it pretty much the same way they do any other drug," said McLellan.
According to the CDC, Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and often mixed with heroin or cocaine
The DEA reports that it only takes two milligrams for a user to overdose.
"Depending on what form it is and the potency of it just a little of it can be deadly," said McLellan.
Narcotics officers are making sure to wear protective gear when handling the drug because it is very dangerous.
“You get it on your skin, you can automatically get it on you so that’s why we use gloves when we handle the narcotics,” said McLellan.
The drug is not a threat in Southeast Texas for now but it could be in the future. In June, Houston police were warning people about the drug because someone overdosed.
Their officers were gearing up with the Antidote Narcan just in case officers get in contact.
The DEA reported its laboratories received 230 samples of fentanyl or fentanyl-related substances in the first quarter of 2017.
It says fentanyl accounted for more than half of them.