BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Increasing amounts of illegally produced fentanyl is showing up in Whatcom County and the sheriff’s department has the numbers to prove it.

They say in a social media post that the Whatcom County Drug Task Force recovered just over 20,000 fentanyl pills in 2020.

The number of confiscated pills grew to over 559,000 last year.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is many times more powerful than heroin or morphine.

Fentanyl pills are often trafficked as counterfeit pain pills and are sold on the street to unsuspecting users.

The DEA’s One Pill Can Kill campaign warns that they can be deadly, as a tiny amount of fentanyl is often enough to cause a fatal overdose.