JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Officials with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics (MBN) are concerned about fentanyl in Mississippi.

According to Keith Davis, Colonel of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety (DPS) Law Enforcement Division (LED), authorities have seized fentanyl in and around college towns across the state.

In 2023, MBN saw 2,000 drug cases in the state. Of those cases, 140 were fentanyl cases. This is the highest number of fentanyl cases since 2018. The number of cases and overdoses were much lower in 2018 and 2019, but the numbers increased during the coronavirus pandemic.

There were 263 overdoses in 2020 and 2023. There were 289 overdoses reported in 2021.

In 2023, Attorney General Lynn Fitch (R-Miss.) launched the One Pill Can Kill initiative to inform people how dangerous the drug is. Davis encouraged all Mississippians to educate themselves and their families about the dangers of fentanyl.

“Recently, in one of our state penitentiaries, fentanyl was introduced into the jail system, and we, luckily no one lost their lives, but some people were adversely affected by just being exposed to that one jail cell,” he said.

During the pandemic, Davis said narcotics enforcement believed a majority of the drugs coming in at that time were through the mail system. They’re still coming through the mail system, but at a lower rate. The border also continues to be a factor in the fentanyl crisis.

“Regardless of what you see nationally about the border being secure, we in law enforcement are seeing vast amounts of fentanyl coming across the southern border,” stated Davis.

The drug cartels are using the highway systems in Mississippi to take fentanyl to other places across the country. Davis said the cartels are transporting fentanyl through a variety of ways.

“To hide the drugs in vehicles and tractor trailers. Our interstate system is just exploited by the cartels sending this stuff into our state, and of course, up the eastern corridor,” he said.

Davis said the case numbers for 2024 are trending a touch north of what they saw in 2023.