Butler DA joins AG in Pittsburgh for fentanyl trafficking update
PITTSBURGH — Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger joined the state attorney general and leaders from 16 other law enforcement agencies in the greater Pittsburgh region for an update on combating fentanyl trafficking.
Attorney General Dave Sunday held up a 2-milligram bag of sugar, which is the amount of one dose of fentanyl, and said law enforcement had seized 50 million of them in the state as of September 2025.
The 50 million doses equate to about 220 pounds of fentanyl. Nearly 18 million of those doses were seized in the greater Pittsburgh region, he said. Law enforcement also seized 76,000 fentanyl pills disguised as prescription medications.
“The mission is to stop the flow of fentanyl, to remove fentanyl from our streets and neighborhoods, and to hold accountable the predatory traffickers profiting from the death and destruction,” Sunday said.
Goldinger said fentanyl has surpassed heroin as the most common opioid over his almost 18 years as district attorney in Butler County. It appears the trend has spread to the entire state, he said.
“That was our major problem when dealing with drugs and people overdosing,” Goldinger said about heroin. “Fentanyl is a whole different ball game.”
Sunday said fentanyl enters the United States from Mexico and is trafficked through Pennsylvania on its major interstates and highways. The chemicals to produce fentanyl are sourced from China, he said.
An ounce of fentanyl, which is about 14,000 doses, goes for about $200 in today’s market, Sunday said. The same amount was sold at around $800 a few years ago, Sunday said.
As part of efforts to combat fentanyl trafficking, the attorney general’s office also expanded its Law Enforcement Treatment Initiative to include behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment. The initiative allows first-time, non-violent offenders to be referred to case management or treatment in place of being prosecuted. Butler County joined the initiative in 2023.
The attorney general also noted operations completed this year where substantial amounts of narcotics were seized or arrests were made. In July, he said law enforcement in an operation in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties seized around 412,000 doses of fentanyl, six illegal firearms and made six arrests.
Police also seized $6 million in fentanyl, or about 41 pounds, during an operation in northern Philadelphia this year. Sunday said about 200,000 of the more than 9 million doses were headed to the Greater Pittsburgh region.
Other operations have resulted in the arrest of more than 10 people at a time, including those carrying illegal firearms and charged with other crimes.
