A family in Arizona bought a toy that is worth far more than what it paid for when they discovered more than 5,000 pills believed to be fentanyl inside the doll.
Phoenix police said on Saturday that the child’s parents bought a Glo Worm at a thrift store in El Mirage, Arizona. Parents were cleaning the toy when they found a sandwich bag full of drugs, police said.
Police said the family immediately reported the discovery and turned the drugs over to authorities.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid often mixed with other illicit drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, which causes euphoric effects, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids increased by more than 16 percent from 2018 to 2019, according to the CDC.
Police officers used the incident as a reminder for parents to inspect all open and used toys.
It was not the first time that illicit drugs were found tucked into children’s toys.
In 2015, a mother from New Jersey bought a $ 500 “handmade” mermaid doll full of cocaine from Etsy. Later, investigators determined that the Alabama-based Etsy store used Mer-baby dolls as a front for drug smuggling.
