Man arrested on drug charges after kilo of fentanyl found in backpack
Wanted felon from Coalinga tracked into San Luis Obispo County
– In April, members of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff‘s Gang Task Force were tracking a wanted felon, 31-year-old Julian Ackerman of Coalinga, who was suspected of driving into San Luis Obispo County with a large amount of narcotics.
On April 22, sheriff’s deputies spotted the car with two occupants, Ackerman, and a female driver. Deputies attempted to pull the vehicle over on northbound Highway 101 just north of Highway 166. The car came to a complete stop on the shoulder of the highway just south of the Tefft Street off-ramp in Nipomo. As a deputy questioned the occupants of the car, the car suddenly took off and exited the highway at Tefft Street. Deputies located and stopped the vehicle at E. Tefft Street and Beechnut Street in Nipomo. The female driver, identified as 20-year-old Zoe Rutledge of Nipomo, was detained. Ackerman fled the vehicle.
Deputies and members of the Sheriff’s Special Operations Unit began searching for Ackerman. He was spotted in the front yard of a house before running into a nearby field near East Branch Street in Nipomo where he was caught and arrested.
Detectives discovered a backpack in the field where Ackerman had been arrested. That same backpack had been spotted in the vehicle that Ackerman had fled. Inside, a kilo (approximately 2.2 pounds) of Fentanyl. It’s estimated worth is $25,000. Or if sold by the gram at $125 a gram, that would be worth $125,000.
Ackerman was arrested for possession of a controlled substance for sale, transporting a controlled substance for sale, and resisting a peace officer. Rutledge was arrested for attempting to evade a peace officer in a reckless manner.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, a lethal dose of fentanyl is two milligrams. So one kilo of pure Fentanyl contains approximately 500,000 lethal doses, the sheriff’s office reports.
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