Fentanyl, guns, cash seized following foot pursuit of man in Phoenix parking lot

PHOENIX - Phoenix Police released a body cam video from Feb. 3 of an officer chasing a man on foot for a short period after he reportedly ran from a parked car with drugs.

The video shows the man running from the officer near 63rd Avenue and Broadway Road. Once the officer catches up to him, he's brought to the ground and is arrested.

A search warrant was served at a home connected to the man and police say they found about 67,000 fentanyl pills, about $14,000 and five guns.

Arthur William Dedrick, 21, was booked into jail on suspicion of multiple felony drug charges, along with other charges.

Drug busts in Phoenix aren't new as fentanyl has become increasingly more common to be sold and used in Arizona as it's often trafficked through the U.S.-Mexico border.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it had seen a "substantial increase" in fentanyl seizures at the southern border in January, just as it confirmed that there were 153,941 migrant encounters.

There were 48,945 lbs of drugs seized at the southern border in January, which is down from 59,793 lbs encountered a year prior. However, fentanyl seizures were up, with 839 lbs seized in January, compared to 682 lbs in FY 2021 and 139 in FY 2020.

Fentanyl, an opioid for pain treatment, is between 50 and 100 times more potent than morphine. In Fiscal Year 2021, CBP seized 10,586 pounds of the deadly drug at the southern border, which can be fatal in extremely small amounts. That is up from 4,558 pounds seized in FY 2020 and 2,633 pounds seized in FY 2019. So far in FY 2022, agents have seized 3,289 lbs.