Children on playgrounds targeted by drug runners with candy-colored 'trash cans,' DEA agent warns

Yahoo

16-04-2025

As drug dealers look to innovate and market their product to the masses, some have started to stash their poison in "trash cans," small multicolored capsules that have replaced traditional vials.
Authorities have found them in Baltimore, New Jersey, New York City and Philadelphia. In Baltimore, some are being used to package fentanyl, a deadly opioid that kills even in small amounts, according to a 2021 warning issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
In New York, drug dealers have moved away from traditional packaging systems like vials used to sell cocaine and other drugs, said Frank Tarentino III, the special agent in charge of the DEA's New York office.
"There was a time when cocaine was encapsulated in what we would call crack vials. … We're seeing that substituted with these trash cans or pop-tops, or snap top-type plastic material that contains an illicit drug," Tarentino told Fox News Digital. "It's been reported in different schools throughout New York City that these trash cans, pop-tops are being found in the playgrounds in and around schools."
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The DEA's laboratory in New York found that the "trash cans" found in and around New York contained cocaine, Tarentino said.
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Authorities there haven't seen any evidence of much fentanyl in the "trash cans," he said, but it's only a matter of time before street-level dealers begin mixing the opioid with cocaine and package it into colorful receptacles, he said.
However, in 2023, there were reports of fentanyl stashed inside "trash can" capsules that were found by private school students at a Brooklyn playground. The drugs were found at the Crispus Attucks Playground in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, the New York Post reported at the time.
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In Fort Greene, Brooklyn, multicolored "trash cans" were found in and around a park that same year, according to a warning from the Fort Greene Conservancy at the time. They were found in the park's playground and on a lawn.
"The newness of the packaging is attractive. It's distinctive," the DEA said in its 2021 warning. "And like any other product, selling drugs is in many ways about marketing."
At the time the capsules were found in the Brooklyn park, parents were notified of the drugs being stored in the tiny eye-catching containers.
"We reminded the children of the class rule that we only pick up things made by nature and, in particular, some things that aren't made by nature like these 'little trash cans' can have poison on them and children should never touch them, only report them to grown ups (sic) right away," the notice said.
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The DEA remains concerned about the packaging trend, Tarentino said.
It's "definitely appealing to young people. It is definitely a branding or drug-marketing scheme," he said. "We're very concerned about this happening in and around our schools and in our communities."
The capsules appeal to dealers as well.
They're thicker and more durable than other containers, the DEA said, making them attractive to drug pushers. In addition, they are easier to smuggle, less likely to break apart once inside the human body and can hold up under bad weather conditions like rain, as opposed to small plastic bags.
The New York Police Department told Fox News Digital, "We have seen this packaging." The NYPD does not keep data on the packaging itself, a police spokesperson said.
Fox News Digital has reached out multiple times to the New York City Departments of Education, Public Health and Parks and Recreation.
Since January, the DEA in New York has seized 7,342 pounds of cocaine and 365 pounds of fentanyl, of which 230 pounds were pills. The DEA seized 2.5 million fentanyl-laced pills. Overall, the DEA has seized more than 13.5 million pills and more than 2,132 pounds of fentanyl powder.
Those seizures represent at least 81 million deadly doses, the agency told Fox News Digital.Original article source: Children on playgrounds targeted by drug runners with candy-colored 'trash cans,' DEA agent warns