Chula Vista, California – A 13-year-old boy in Chula Vista was taken into custody Friday morning after deputies say they found his backpack stuffed with more than five kilograms of fentanyl powder. The discovery, authorities say, is part of a disturbing pattern in which traffickers enlist young teens to move drugs across San Diego County.
According to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, detectives were conducting surveillance around 10 a.m. near 3rd and Orange avenues as part of an operation targeting cross-border narcotics smuggling. Investigators spotted a 19-year-old man with what looked like a heavy backpack. He handed the bag to the boy, who then walked into a nearby liquor store. Deputies intervened, stopping the boy for what they described as a truancy check.
That’s when they discovered his age — just 13 — and what he was carrying. Inside the pack was more than 11 pounds of fentanyl, an amount large enough to fuel thousands of lethal overdoses…