Curiel Benito. (Woodbury County Jail photo)
Sioux City police found several hundred fentanyl-laced pills on a man who was stopped following a chase.
Sergeant Tom Gill says the chase started in Nebraska and ended in Iowa when they used “stop sticks” to disable the car. “Upon searching the driver, officers located a plastic baggie that contained 434 pills — they were blue pills. The officers tested the pills and it came back positive for fentanyl,” he says.
Gill says the number of pills seized is a concern. “It’s becoming a problem and it’s becoming a concern because it’s a very dangerous drug. We’ve had several fentanyl-related overdoses just in the past year, people that we’ve had to Narcan to bring back to life,” Gill says. “I was on scene of a 17 year old girl that she didn’t know she was taking fentanyl. She thought she was taking another type of drug, an illegal drug, and turned out it was fentanyl. She overdosed and it took four doses of Narcan to bring her back to life.”
The driver, 23-year-old Benito Curiel was already wanted on fentanyl charges. He was charged with possession of a controlled substance, failure to affix a drug stamp, felony eluding, no driver’s license or registration, interference with official acts, and several traffic-related counts. He is being held in the Woodbury County jail on a $55,000r bond.
A passenger in the car, 19-year-old Carson Klassen, is charged with interference with official acts and is free on bond.
(By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)