Albuquerque police plan to crack down on open-air fentanyl use along Central

Over the past year, the eastern end of Route 66 — one of Albuquerque’s most historically vibrant roadways — has become the scene of something else: open-air drug use.

At all hours, it was common to see people smoking drugs like fentanyl, a tube between their teeth, as they hovered above a blue pill smoldering on a square of foil. Sometimes users would line the curb, side by side, using blankets to shield the flame from wind or prying eyes.

On Wednesday, the Albuquerque Police Department said making arrests for the use of fentanyl and other hard drugs along Central is now a top priority.

“Over the course of the last year, we’ve heard that there’s a lot of people concerned over the open air use of drugs, and it’s us as a police department listening to the community (and) hearing their concerns,” APD Chief Harold Medina said during a briefing Wednesday.

Medina said police began to tackle the issue with an operation last Thursday and Friday, during which 47 people were arrested for felony or misdemeanor possession, 32 of them related to fentanyl. Another 62 people were arrested for outstanding warrants.

He said there has been a lot of “rumors and misinformation” being spread about APD not enforcing laws related to drug use.

Medina said, since 2018, APD had been treating open-air drug use as a misdemeanor offense due to concerns that the crime lab couldn’t efficiently get an influx of felony possession cases ready for prosecution in time. He said those issues with the crime lab’s testing capabilities have been fixed, and “we’re making sure that we’re able to push these cases forward.”

Medina said the “continuous and ongoing” enforcement would focus on Central between San Mateo and Wyoming and target both public drug use and those who traffic the substances.

Cmdr. George Vega said APD’s specialized drug and gang units seized 6,000 fentanyl pills, firearm parts and 50 grams of cocaine during a traffic stop and arrested four others for possession and at least one for trafficking methamphetamine.

All four arrests were made in two separate incidents.

In one case, an undercover APD detective walked up to a woman smoking a fentanyl pill and asked if he could buy some, according to court records. Officers arrested the woman after she sold him six pills and also arrested a man standing near her who had pills on him.

In the other case, according to court records, another undercover detective bought seven fentanyl pills from a man. Officers arrested the man and a 17-year-old girl he was enlisting to help sell the fentanyl.

Vega said APD also assisted federal authorities in targeting an international fentanyl trafficking ring but gave few details on the case. He said they also worked with federal agents to arrest a person who had 5,000 fentanyl pills on them and, through further investigation, recovered 25,000 pills in the case.

Medina said officers have been arresting 12 to 14 people a day for possession, but he wants to double that total.

“In a way, I hope that it puts a little strain on the system. I think the system needs to feel a little bit of strain on how we’re going to deal with these individuals and how we ultimately are going to get them the resources they need,” he said. “By no means am I saying these individuals should spend the rest of their life in prison, but I think the system needs to evolve.”

Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman released statistics on Tuesday showing that fentanyl-related cases increased from 53% of all drug cases in the first seven months of 2022 to 71% of all drug cases over the same time last year. Cases involving other drugs remained flat or decreased.

He said when prosecuting cases related to drug use, his office oftentimes decides diversion to treatment is better than jail time, adding “they wouldn’t be in the criminal justice system if it were not for their addiction, and so we want to get them the help they need.”

Bregman said a bigger issue is the lack of resources in the community and statewide for substance abuse treatment, and there needs to be a “centralized coordination effort.” He said he wants to see a city where a social worker or officer who has found someone using drugs can look up available beds at local treatment centers and get the person into one.

“And there isn’t any coordination. There isn’t even a list that you can go to on any website right now and find out who’s doing fentanyl treatment. ... It just does not exist,” Bregman said. “... If they’re not getting treatment, they’re going to end up back on the same street corner doing open-air, fentanyl smoking and that doesn’t work.”