Surge in meth busts points to dire trend, NYC drug prosecutor says

With drug overdose deaths in New York City — fueled by deadly fentanyl — projected to spike by 46% this year from 2020, the city’s top narcotics prosecutor Monday also voiced concern about a dramatic rise in methamphetamine seizures.

Speaking at a forum held by the nonprofit Citizens Crime Commission of New York City, special narcotics prosecutor Bridget Brennan said the seized methamphetamine, like a good portion of the fentanyl brought into the United States, was smuggled from Mexico by drug cartels.

What remains to be seen, she said, is whether the seizures signal the start of a methamphetamine scourge in New York City.

“We are the canary in the coal mine,” Brennan said, noting that previously, widespread use has mostly been confined to the Midwest and other parts of the country.

The amount of illegal methamphetamine seized in the city rose from 58 pounds in 2021 to 384 pounds in 2022, an increase of more than 560%, according to Brennan’s office.

In a 2021 report, officials with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration reported that, in fiscal 2020, they saw a 214% increase in methamphetamine seizures in New York compared to 2019, along with a 59% spike in fentanyl seizures.

As they do with fentanyl, Mexican cartels ship methamphetamine to New York to create more users, said Frank Tarentino, special agent-in-charge for the New York office of the DEA, in a statement to Newsday.

Brennan’s concerns are compounded by an ongoing rise in the number of overdose deaths caused by fentanyl in the city.

She said the projected 46% rise in fatal overdoses in the city since 2020 — gleaned from city and federal data — is being fueled by fentanyl.

“It is involved in 80% of overdose deaths,” Brennan noted. “The hardest thing about fentanyl is that it is a shape shifter, it is ever changing.”

Fentanyl can be fatal in very small doses and shows up as an additive in other drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, said Brennan, adding that it is a main ingredient in fake oxycodone pills designed to mimic the appearance of the legitimate painkiller.

Methamphetamine also poses myriad dangers — it can lead to violent behavior, serious addiction and is smuggled into the city by violent drug cartels, Brennan said.

Because of the state’s bail reform laws, a judge can release drug traffickers charged in certain cases without bail. One trafficker was released without bail and later wound up killed in Mexico, Brennan recalled.

Adding to the fentanyl and methamphetamine problem is an increase in cocaine trafficking, mixed with crack, the latter associated with more territorialism and gang violence, Brennan said.

“We are seeing more guns, that is because of the chaotic nature of things,” she said.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.