Opioid offensive: Leaders provide update on Governor’s Fentanyl Task Force
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- Utah Rep. Matthew Gwynn, R-Farr West, speaks during a briefing on the Governor’s Fentanyl Task Force at the Utah State Capitol on Monday, July 14, 2025.
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- Law enforcement officials and other local leaders participate in a briefing on the Governor’s Fentanyl Task Force at the Utah State Capitol on Monday, July 14, 2025.
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- Law enforcement officials and other local leaders participate in a briefing on the Governor’s Fentanyl Task Force at the Utah State Capitol on Monday, July 14, 2025.
SALT LAKE CITY — Leaders in the areas of public safety, health and drug enforcement converged on the south steps of the Utah State Capitol on Monday to provide a progress report on the Governor’s Fentanyl Task Force.
Launched last fall, the multijurisdictional task force was created to address the state’s growing fentanyl crisis. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid approved for medical use in the United States in 1968, primarily as an analgesic. It is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin, according to the state’s 2025 fentanyl report.
Fentanyl is classified as a Schedule II narcotic under the U.S. Controlled Substances Act of 1970.
During the briefing, Roy Police Chief and Utah Rep. Matthew Gwynn, R-Farr West, touted the impact of House Bill 87, or the Drug Trafficking Amendments, on the task force’s efforts to curb the illegal distribution and use of fentanyl statewide.
The bill, which was signed into law in March, imposes stiffer penalties on fentanyl traffickers, including prison sentences ranging from five years to life. The law makes the trafficking of 100 or more grams of fentanyl or fentanyl-related substances a first-degree felony.
Gwynn was H.B. 87’s chief sponsor.
“This bill directly targets fentanyl traffickers, and I think it’s important to note that this was a bipartisan bill, receiving total unanimous support from both the House and the Senate before it was signed by the governor,” Gwynn said. “This bill was about giving law enforcement a stronger legal floor to go after the worst offenders, the ones who are pumping poison into our communities with zero regard for human life and destroying our families.”
Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said Monday that fentanyl arrests made over the Fourth of July weekend will lead to the state’s first prosecution under H.B. 87.
According to State Bureau of Investigation data, 873,365 fentanyl pills were seized in 2024. So far, 222,363 pills have been seized in 2025. In June, SBI agents made the second-largest seizure in DPS history, seizing 92,600 pills in a single day.
Those numbers were touted during the briefing, during which Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Director Nathan Checketts stated that early data shows a year-over-year decrease in overdose deaths of 1.5% in 2024, with preliminary 2025 numbers showing a continued downward trend, especially in fentanyl-related fatalities.
Ogden Police Chief Jake Sube told the Standard-Examiner that the creation of the task force has paid dividends in the Ogden area and throughout the state.
“This is a good first step to send the message to those who are dealing and distributing fentanyl in our communities that we’re not going to put up with it, that we are going to aggressively pursue those people,” Sube said. “There’s too many people dying from this drug, losing family members. Our community is losing people over fentanyl.”
He added that the partnership between state and federal agencies better equips the Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force to contend with fentanyl trafficking locally.
“If they have an individual with a large quantity of fentanyl, it’s not simply let’s make an arrest on that individual. Let’s do a deeper dive into that investigation. How is this person tied into an actual organization? Do we have the ability to target offenders above that level, bringing in even more quantity? What level of distributor is this individual we have in custody? Then where does that lead to us building on to a larger drug trafficking organization?
“It really pushes them to get that because we have to send that message that we unapologetically go after people putting this into our communities.”
