Feds who raided an unassuming car rental in Houston last week found more than 17lbs of possible fentanyl precursors and over 1 kilogram of Counterfeit Xanax Pills laced with fentanyl in the latest bust of businesses doubling as Drug depots.

Four men are facing manufacturing and distribution charges following the high-profile raid of Speedy Slingshot Rental, which happened January 30 and could be linked to what feds say is a complex, far-reaching drug operation.

Authorities confiscated several pounds of product, pills, and high-tech drug-making machinery from the store, which opened last year and bills itself as Houston’s premier exotic vehicle rental experience.

More charges are likely to follow for the unnamed men – who are reportedly already out on bail, despite authorities airing the belief the bust-up may be linked to Mexican cartels who have sought to expand their reach stateside.

The incident is just the latest in a series of Breaking Bad-esque busts of businesses acting as a front for criminal enterprises, with the one in Texas uncovering a sprawling, sophisticated lab straight from the hit series.

Neighbors said undercover officers had been staking out the shop for days prior to the raid, where feds found pill press machines, more than 17lbs of possible fentanyl precursors, and over 1 kilogram of counterfeit Xanax pills laced with fentanyl – a deadly drug that is 50 times stronger than heroin.

A synthetic opioid, the drug is commonly added to other illicit substances like cocaine and meth due to it’s affordability and potency. The is blamed for helping fuel America’s current drug crisis and subsequent rise in opioid-related deaths.

Authorities also discovered felony quantities of cocaine, ecstasy, meth, and fentanyl-laced Oxycodone at the roadside business – as well as a stolen vehicle, three pistols, and a rifle.

The four men arrested at the business have yet to be identified, and reportedly tried to flee from agents who descended on the store, according to the charges leveled against them – which included evading authorities in a motor vehicle. 

Fox News further reported that all four of the men were out on bail as early as Wednesday, despite facing felony distribution and manufacturing charges that could see them put away in a federal pen for up to 99 years.

The suspected drug depot is still being investigated, and is only the most recent instance of a restaurant, office, or other business serving as a cover for an illicit drug operation – a la the Albuquerque car wash bought by a rising Walter White, or the equally inconspicuous cartel-run chicken chain Los Pollos Hermanos.

That said, as efforts to quell the opioid crisis become more pronounced, drug factories adopting the façade of a respectable businesses have become more common – leading many to question exactly just how many are hiding in plain sight.

Shiva Science & Technology Group – ‘biotech’ firm busted earlier this year

In September, feds unmasked one of these potential rings operating out of a prominent Pennsylvania tech firm.

Located in Lewisburg, the unassuming office for Shiva Science & Technology Group not only contained the usual computers and cubicles, but another full-service lab designed to synthesize mass quantities of fentanyl.

Billing itself as a ‘biotech’ firm, the company not employed staff with no science background whatsoever, but compiled chemicals not for the betterment of mankind, but to create the powerful narcotic blamed for more than 80,000 of the 108,000 overdose deaths seen across America in 2021.

The alleged mastermind, 50-year-old Chairman & CEO Anthony Bressi, admitted that for more than six years, he and his coconspirators were manufacturing and selling in an elaborate underground, online network, where he charged buyers $25,000 a kilogram.

A laboratory analysis of the chemicals seized from the business, which at first glance looks like any other office building in the area, confirmed the crook’s story, after feds determined the office’s well-equipped laboratory was capable of producing mass amounts of fentanyl, acetyl fentanyl and carfentanil, feds wrote in an affidavit. 

Bressi, and alleged accomplices Damonico Henderson, 58, and Terry Harris, 49, are currently awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy and possession with intent to deliver controlled substances following the depot’s downfall. 

 The Original Nancy’s Seafood and Oriental Market’ – raided in 2019

Another bust a few thousand miles south in Georgia saw five restaurant staffers cuffed on similar charges, after they were found to be operating a drug ring run out of the back of their family-run Seafood restaurant.

While a far cry from the professional operation carried out by fried chicken kingpin Gus Fring, the undercover drug ring at ‘The Original Nancy’s Seafood and Oriental Market’ was busted in 2019, after feds found crystal meth, ‘more’ than four pounds of marijuana, 100 THC vape pens, and cash at the bayside business in Savannah.

A sign outside the eatery seemingly advertised the extracurricular items, reading: ‘fresh seafood and more,’ with feds revealing all of the illegal drug deals carried out – not carry-out – by owner Trinh Kapu, 48, was done inside the unassuming eatery.