North Carolina Woman Arrested With 2 Kilograms Of Fentanyl In Her Car

The police in North Carolina arrested a woman Tuesday after she was found to have 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of fentanyl, a quantity sufficient to kill one million people, in her vehicle while her 4-year-old daughter was also on board.

Karen Euceda, 24, of Winston-Salem was arrested on two counts of trafficking and misdemeanor child abuse charges, WGN9 reported, citing the Durham County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities said she was the subject of an ongoing investigation that is not related to the latest one.

The child was placed in the custody of a family member, according to the police statement, and Euceda was being held on a $100,000 bond at the Durham County Detention Center.

One kilogram of fentanyl is potent enough to kill up to 50,000 people, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid drug that is medically used to cure chronic pain. The drug is classified as a Schedule II controlled substance "that is similar to morphine but 100 times more potent," the Drug Enforcement Administration said.

The drug is provided to patients based on a medical practitioner’s prescription. It is also illegally produced in foreign unregistered labs and smuggled to the U.S. Consuming just 2-3 milligrams of this drug can result in respiratory depression and eventually death.

In April, a man in Ohio was sentenced to five years in prison after his 18-month-old son died of a fentanyl overdose. The child was found unresponsive on his bed after deputies arrived at the man’s residence at Fairmount, Cincinnati. A toxicology test found extremely high levels of fentanyl in his system. Investigators believed the man might have left a plastic cup full of fentanyl unattended and the toddler might have ingested the fatal substance after mistaking the plastic cup for his sipper cup.