COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Columbus Division of Police arrested 27 people at a Hilltop neighborhood home on Thursday afternoon and recovered guns and drugs.
Lisa Boggs has lived in the neighborhood for about 40 years. She loves the area and works to clean it up. Boggs said the recent arrests will make an impact.
“That’s going to make a huge difference for the neighbors. They have to live that life seeing people come and go. There’s usually criminal activity surrounding that area,” said Boggs.
Boggs said the neighborhood will be calmer after the arrests. She said the community has to be resilient and not give up on improving.
“There’s more, a lot more. We have several in my neighborhood. It’s significant, but not all were arrested. They will move onto another community,” said Boggs.
One of the drugs police said was recovered was fentanyl. The drug enforcement agency said fentanyl is one of the most dangerous drugs in the United States.
Brian Mulcahy, the assistant special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency in Columbus, said getting fentanyl off the streets is a top priority.
“Here in the United States, we currently see ourselves in the deadliest drug crisis that we’ve faced in the history of our country. That’s because of fentanyl,” said Mulcahy.
Mulcahy said fentanyl can come in various shapes, forms and colors.
“Pills are falsely labeled as either oxycodone or Percocet. We’ve seen Xanax bars. We’ve seen fentanyl pop up with a variety of drugs,” he said.
Mulcahy said it takes two milligrams of a dose of fentanyl to potentially trigger an overdose and loss of life. He said their job is to get fentanyl off the streets to save lives. Mulcahy said the solution is a two-pronged approach.
“It’s enforcement on one side. Doing everything that we can to target the organizations and the traffickers that are moving fentanyl. Then, also engaging the community to promote awareness,” said Mulcahy.