BUTLER COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating two teenagers in connection with fentanyl distribution.
Just after 11:30a.m. Wednesday, the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, in conjunction with the United States Postal Inspection Service, conducted an undercover operation involving the controlled delivery of a package containing approximately 20,000 counterfeit M30 pills suspected of containing Fentanyl, according to Butler County Undersheriff Daimon Cundiff.
The estimated street value could be as high as $200,000. The package was delivered to an address in the 800 block of N. Taylor in El Dorado, Kansas.
After a short period of time, a vehicle drove up to the residence. One of the occupants retrieved the package, took it back to the car, and started to leave as deputies, in several marked Butler County Sheriff’s Office vehicles, attempted a traffic stop.
The vehicle fled and law enforcement pursued the vehicle from El Dorado, down the Kansas Turnpike, where one of the occupants of the vehicle threw the package out, causing it to break open on the highway.
The fleeing vehicle then exited to westbound K-96 where the pursuit ended at the Hillside exit when the car became disabled after driving over a concrete median.
The driver, 18-year-old Jordan R. Cooper as well as the male passenger, 18-year-old Kavonte Horton both of Wichita were booked into the Butler County Detention Facility on charges related to the possession of the pills as well the pursuit.
Authorities spent several hours on the turnpike cleaning up the pills to reduce the risk of Fentanyl exposure to the public.