Mexican police find 660 pounds of fentanyl in coconuts

MEXICO — Mexican prosecutors said police found 660 pounds (300 kilograms) of fentanyl pills packaged in coconut shells.

The coconuts were found in a truck traveling on a highway in the northern border state of Sonora.

Prosecutors said the truck was detected Thursday on a road that runs along the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of ​​Cortez.

According to photos of the bust, the coconut shells had been carefully cut in half and reassembled with plastic bags containing fentanyl pills inside. The road eventually leads to the border town of Sonoyta, across the border from Lukeville, Arizona.

Mexico produces most of the fentanyl that reaches the United States, using precursor chemicals imported from China and elsewhere.

Fentanyl is responsible for tens of thousands of overdose deaths in the United States each year because this extremely potent synthetic opioid is squeezed into counterfeit pills that are often designed to look like Xanax, Oxycodone or Percocet. Many people who take it do not know they are taking fentanyl.