Local and federal law enforcement officials are warning parents to inspect their kids’ Halloween candy this year after 12,000 rainbow fentanyl pills were found in candy packaging at Los Angeles International Airport on Oct. 19.

The dealers weren’t targeting children, and authorities don’t believe the fentanyl will be deliberately placed in kids’ candy bags, Bill Bodner, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Los Angeles office, said at a news conference in front of Pasadena City Hall on Thursday, Oct. 27.

“But here’s where the danger is,” he said. “Had we not intercepted those drugs in those candy bags and boxes, they would have ended up in someone’s home that night, no doubt about it.”

The pills were put into candy bags to hide them from law enforcement and other people, he said.

“So a bag of Skittles that contains fentanyl pills goes into a drug dealer’s home and there happens to be kids in that home,” Bodner said. “It’s Halloween time and maybe that child then takes that bag and takes it to school with them and that’s where we have the danger of fentanyl in my mind.”

Bodner urged parents to trick-or-treat with their kids, inspect the candy, make sure it’s a brand they recognize and make sure it’s unopened. If possible, put the candy in a secure location and open and inspect it when a child wants a piece, he said.

Michelle Garrett of Altadena attended the news conference with her 8-year-old son Dwayne, who was dressed in a Troy Polamalu costume.

“My mom is going to look at the candy before I eat it,” the tiny football player announced.

“We’re definitely going to be on high alert, being careful,” Garrett said. “We need to pay attention in all aspects, from where they’re going to who they’re with and what’s going in the bag.”

Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin and just two milligrams could be fatal, officials say. When mixed with other drugs, fentanyl increases the likelihood of a deadly overdose.

The DEA issued an alert in September about rainbow-colored fentanyl that in pill form resembles candy, like  SweeTarts, and in block form looks like sidewalk chalk. Federal officials said it was a deliberate attempt to market the drug to minors. But some experts have called that speculation, noting youngsters don’t tend to have much in the way of disposable income.

Regardless, law enforcement officials in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties urge parents to remain vigilant this Halloween, even if smugglers may not be targeting children.

Riverside police recommended considering taking kids to Trunk-or-Treat events or others put on by churches and other officials, so youngsters can get candy all in one place from people who know where it came from.

“There’s nothing wrong with being selective with where you’re doing your trick-or-treating too,” Riverside Police  Officer Ryan Railsback said. “Kids like to go to the neighborhoods giving out the largest candy bars, but I think now with safety in mind, stay within your neighborhood, you know your neighbors.”

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department agreed with Bodner’s view that smugglers aren’t targeting kids, but that department shares his concerns.

“We have no intelligence that this year is any different than the years prior,” Orange County Sheriff’s Sgt. Todd Hylton said, “but we are aware of the trend in fentanyl and the packaging for trafficking.”

This month, federal authorities have seized more fentanyl in the Los Angeles area than in all of fiscal year 2019, said Eddie Wang, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations. Wang said agents have seen an 80% increase in fentanyl over the last three fiscal years.

Bodner linked the increase to profitability for the Mexican cartels, he said. Production of one pill costs 13 cents, while the retail value in the United States is $8 to $12 per pill.

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“It’s an incredible money maker and it doesn’t rely on mother nature,” he said. “The drug heroin, cocaine, those two drugs require the growing of plants. When we’re talking fentanyl and methamphetamine, those are synthetic drugs that are made from just the mixing of chemicals.”

Throughout California, more than 4 million fentanyl pills and 864 pounds of fentanyl powder had been seized by law enforcement since April 2021, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in mid-October.

In Pasadena alone, police have confiscated 328,000 fentanyl pills, Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo said at the Oct. 27 news conference.

“That’s a lot of danger that those pills pose,” he said.