Nashville man busted with 15,000 fentanyl-laced pills, investigators say

A Nashville man arrested Tuesday was found in possession of 15,000 pills laced with fentanyl following a month-long investigation, authorities said.

Investigators with the Murfreesboro Police Department and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) received information in June about a person involved in a drug trafficking ring that supplies fake Roxicodone pills, the TBI said. Roxicodone is a brand name of Oxycodone, an opioid that can help treat pain.

Agents and detectives identified the suspect as 22-year-old Angel Rodriguez Troche, the agency said.

On Tuesday, authorities busted Troche with approximately 15,000 fentanyl-laced pills, according to the TBI. He faces one count of possession of fentanyl over 300 grams and was booked into the Rutherford County Jail on a $150,000 bond.

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Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that “is approximately 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin as an analgesic,” according to the Department of Justice’s Drug Enforcement Administration.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics estimates there were 107,622 drug overdose deaths in 2021, with 71,238 of those deaths related to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.