Gallup drug bust nets meth, heroin and 530 fentanyl pills

A search of a Gallup home turned up more than 150 grams of methamphetamine, 4.2 grams of cocaine, 14 grams of heroin and more than 530 fentanyl pills, a haul that shows how heavily local police work still leans on drug enforcement in McKinley County. Officers arrested Patrick Mazon, 60, and Bernadine Mazon, 66, during a multi-agency operation, and Patrick Mazon was charged with trafficking a controlled substance and two counts of possession.

The seizure stands out even in a weekly police roundup because of both the amount and the mix of drugs. Fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin continue to be among the most dangerous substances moving through Gallup and nearby neighborhoods, and New Mexico health data shows the state’s overdose death rate has remained among the highest in the nation for most of the last two decades. That rate has more than tripled since 1990, and deaths involving methamphetamine and fentanyl have risen sharply in recent years.

The roundup also showed how much of the daily workload is tied to transport, jail processing and highway enforcement. On May 13, Gallup Police Officer Ryan Boucher was sent to the Interstate 40 exit 20 off-ramp to help transport Fransisco Bravo, 50, after a narcotics agents’ arrest. In another case, a corrections officer later found fentanyl on a man who had originally been arrested on a drug-related warrant, underscoring how contraband keeps surfacing at different points in the system.

Those calls land on an agency that says it has 60 commissioned officers, 10 public service officers and 6 civilian employees. The numbers help explain why Gallup police are often stretched across narcotics work, roadside arrests and detention-related tasks at the same time, especially when major corridors like Interstate 40 become part of the enforcement picture.

The local case also sits inside a much larger fentanyl crisis. CDC data shows the U.S. drug overdose death rate declined from 2023 to 2024, including a 35.6% drop in deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone, but New Mexico remains a high-burden state. In May 2025, federal authorities announced what they described as the largest fentanyl bust in DEA history, with more than 400 kilograms of fentanyl and more than three million fentanyl pills seized nationwide. Against that backdrop, the Gallup roundup shows enforcement here is still centered on the same pressures that keep showing up in homes, on highways and inside the jail system.