Indiana police department warns residents about increase in 'rainbow fentanyl'

An Indiana police department sent out a warning to local residents to be on the lookout for a new deadly form of fentanyl that could target children.

"Rainbow fentanyl is reported to look like candy and could be mistaken for such, especially when in the presence of children," the Fishers Police Department said in a release, according to Fox 59.

Rainbow fentanyl can be sold in forms such as pills, powder, and blocks that resemble sidewalk chalk, the police department said. Police warn that the brightly colored blocks could be used attract younger and "less-assuming" customers, especially children.

OFFICIALS WARN OF ‘RAINBOW FENTANYL’ COMING FROM SOUTHERN BORDER, COULD BE MISTAKEN FOR CANDY OR CHALK BY KIDS

Police also warn that sales of the drug in the city are usually conducted online.

The warning comes just a few days after Customs and Border Protection officers in Arizona uncovered a smuggler plot to sneak thousands of rainbow-colored fentanyl pills into the U.S. from Mexico.

According to Michael Humphries, the port director for the Nogales, Arizona, port of entry to the U.S., officers seized 625,000 pills in five separate inspections at the port, 12,000 of which were the rainbow-colored pills. Agents also found 34 pounds of methamphetamine and five pounds of marijuana in the inspections.

Seizures of fentanyl saw a spike of nearly 200% at the southern border in July to over 2,100 pounds seized, the highest amount seized in at least four fiscal years. The highest total recorded in 2022 before the July spike occurred in April, when 1,300 pounds were seized.

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The uptick in seizures comes as The Drug Enforcement Administration has warned of a "nationwide spike" in fentanyl overdoses, with the dangerous drug killing Americans at an "unprecedented rate."

Fentanyl was linked to 80,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. last year, accounting for nearly 75% of all drug overdoses in the country.