Photo: Image of drug and money evidence collected during arrest | Ventura County Sheriff’s Department
With an effective potency reported by Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. John Hajducko as “approximately one hundred times more potent than morphine and fifty times more potent than heroin,” fentanyl has become the most deadly drug sold on American street corners today.
As such, the interdiction of the illicit manufacture and distribution of fentanyl is the primary concern of the Ventura County Fentanyl and Overdose Crimes Unit and of the Camarillo Police Department Special Enforcement Unit. That focus led detectives to an investigation into the activities of 44-year-old Oxnard resident Germain Shrauger and the suspicion that he was “selling a variety of narcotics from his vehicle” throughout the community.
That suspicion was confirmed following “several days of surveillance” during which detectives observed Shrauger as he conducted “numerous suspected narcotics transactions.” A search warrant for him and his vehicle was soon obtained and served on him pursuant to a traffic stop on the afternoon of March 22nd. The search of his vehicle led to the discovery of “nearly 1 lb. of fentany, over 1 lb. of methamphetamine, and currency derived from drug sales.”
Shrauger was summarily taken into custody and transported to Ventura County Jail, where he was booked on charges of possession for sales of a controlled substance, sales of a controlled substance, possession for sales of a dangerous drug, and sales of a dangerous drug. He remains in custody with his bail set at $200,000.
