“The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office Vice and Narcotics Unit was notified of a possible narcotics dealer who was selling large amounts of fentanyl within Hernando County,” the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post on Monday.

According to the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office, the suspect was identified as 49-year-old Jacob Spinoza, who lived at 6099 Patricia Place in Spring Hill. The sheriff’s office said that he was found to be in possession of 1.2 pounds.

“According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) website, 1 kilogram of fentanyl has the potential to kill 500,000 people. Based on this estimate, the fentanyl seized during this search warrant had the potential to provide a lethal dose to over 200,000 people,” the sheriff’s office said in the Facebook post.

The arrest this week comes as law enforcement officers and elected officials continue to warn of the dangers associated with illicit fentanyl. According to the DEA, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine.

“As part of the One Pill Can Kill initiative, the DEA and its law enforcement partners seized more than 10.2 million fentanyl pills and approximately 980 pounds of fentanyl powder during the period of May 23 through Sept. 8, 2022. The amount of fentanyl taken off the streets during this surge is equivalent to more than 36 million lethal doses removed from the illegal drug supply,” the DEA said in a recent statement.

According to the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office, after executing a search warrant of Spinoza’s residence, authorities found several other narcotics, in addition to the fentanyl, which included roughly 2.5 grams of methamphetamine, 34 Suboxone strips and approximately 130.9 grams of marijuana. Officers also found three guns and over $2,000.

Spinoza was previously convicted of aggravated assault, resisting arrest and several other drug charges. He is currently being held on a $141,000 bond for the recent charges associated with the drugs and firearms seized.

In a statement sent to Newsweek, Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis said, “The average deaths we saw last year in the United States from opioid overdoses are about twice the number of Americans who died from combat in World War II each year. An average of about 50,000 U.S. soldiers died in combat per year during the six years of the war. Compare this to the over 100,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2021.”

Nienhuis continued: “Unfortunately, 2022 appears to be on track to match or exceed those numbers. There is no doubt we are in the most deadly war the United States has fought since the founding of our country. The people responsible for supplying this poison are certainly enemies of our way of life and should be considered as dangerous as any enemy soldier we have ever faced.”

In August, Andrea Thomas, a parent who lost a child to fentanyl and now serves as a co-founder for the Facing Fentanyl organization spoke to Newsweek about a letter they sent to U.S. President Joe Biden, calling on him to declare fentanyl as a national security crisis.

“When so many people are dying, how can that not be addressed. Where is the value for life in this country,” Thomas told Newsweek in August. “If you can reduce the supply, reducing the supply is harm reduction so those are very important things to us…The people need to know, the people need to be alerted.”

Update 10/12/2022, 9:12 a.m. ET: This story has been updated to include comments from Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis.