Cortez has increasingly become a trafficking hub for fentanyl, considered the most threatening drug in Montezuma County, since the border with Mexico opened up, the Sheriff’s Office says.

The distribution of fentanyl was slowed when the U.S. land border was “closed” to all but essential travel because of COVID-19, said Detective Victor Galarza, but its reopening increased the supply of fentanyl in Southwest Colorado.

“COVID assisted us drastically,” he said.

As a result, local prices are falling for the in-demand blue pills, and consumption is rising, Galarza said.

Originally from Mexico City, Galarza worked as a Mexican diplomat in the U.S. before becoming a naturalized citizen and then joining the Montezuma County’s Sheriff’s Office in 2012. He teaches classes across the country about cartels and drug trafficking operations.

The Sheriff’s Office emphasized Cortez’s position as a hub for drug trafficking Thursday evening during its presentation “Criminal Groups and the Drugs They Bring Into Our Communities” at the Lewis-Arriola Community Center.

Galarza and Sheriff Steve Nowlin facilitated the program, which about 50 people attended.

While many drugs traveling from Mexican cartels through Cortez are pipelined to Denver, some remain in the area, they said.

“Right now, there’s someone crossing into Montezuma County with a load of dope,” Galarza said.

He said his team is investigating seven drug trafficking operations in the county.

Mexican cartels pose the No.1 criminal threat to the United States, he said.

In Mexico, 300 to 800 drug trafficking operations, transnational criminal organizations, criminal groups and gangs are operating at any given time, Galarza said.

He drew links between regional drug busts and the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación and the Sinaloa cartels.

“They do it with impunity,” Galarza said. “They’re not afraid because they know they control their areas of operation.”

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed two executive orders aimed at reinvigorating combative efforts against transnational organized crime and drug trafficking.

Galarza also referenced the recent death of an Animas High School student who was suspected to have overdosed while smoking the opioid painkiller Percocet, which might have been laced with fentanyl. Two other students were hospitalized.

Galarza said the opioid crisis has reached a critical level, even witnessing Narcan – a device that delivers naloxone to remedy an overdose — hanging on the walls of homes he’s visited.

While the presence of fentanyl is spiking in Montezuma County, Galarza said regional drug trafficking operations pose a threat as well. He cited involvement in recent Alamosa and Morgan drug investigations that involved 10 total murders.

In a Q&A session after the presentation, residents expressed concern about local trafficking.

Nowlin confirmed crime was increasing with the rising prevalence of fentanyl, heroin and meth in Montezuma County.

There’s not as much black tar heroine in Montezuma County as there was a year ago, Galarza said. Users now favor fentanyl.

The increased presence of fentanyl pills came to light last month, when the narcotics team requested that the Phoenix Police Department arrest Cortez resident Chad P. Blackmore. Found in Arizona with 1,000 pills and suspected to be en route to Montezuma County, Blackmore was extradited to Cortez, where the narcotics team had found 748 pills at his house days before, Galarza said Friday. Blackmore was issued 21 arrest warrants.

The Montezuma-Cortez Narcotics Investigation Team, led by Galarza, believes Blackmore led a trafficking operation from Cortez and transported thousands of fentanyl pills into the county since January.

Blackmore awaits prosecution, Galarza said.

The counterfeit oxycodone 30 fentanyl pills known as Blues and Blue Smurfs, while typically light blue in color, have been found in seven different colors in the county, Galarza said.

Distributors may purchase the pills for as little as $1 a piece, then resell them for $20 to $30. Two out of every five of those pills has enough fentanyl to be fatal, Galarza said.

In 2021, the Montezuma Cortez Narcotics Investigation team was involved in regional and local confiscations of:

The confiscations were valued at $2.08 million.

A September press release from the Drug Enforcement Administration alerting the country of the lethality and rising availability of the counterfeit pills revealed that 9.5 million counterfeit pills containing fentanyl and meth were seized in the U.S. in 2021.

In 2019, the DEA confiscated 2.6 million counterfeit pills.

In Montezuma County, several dealers were “shut down,”but it’s not long before they start up again, he said.

Galarza and Nowlin said they can’t tackle drug problems in Cortez without help. Residents, they said, sometimes have a closer grasp on localized drug problems.

“These individuals are everywhere, and they hide in plain sight,” Galarza said.

In August, a similar presentation was held at Montezuma-Cortez High School.

Answering another attendee, Nowlin said he believes marijuana is a gateway drug. He said he hasn’t seen any of the tax fund dollars promised to law enforcement with the drug’s legalization in 2012.

“This experiment in Colorado has grown to where it is so dangerous,” he said.

“There are people who will survive the addiction if they receive help,” Nowlin said, and they can inform officers about drug suppliers, he said.

He said he also suspects that human trafficking exists in the county.