Authorities said they discovered dozens of illegal and dangerous pills at a Cantiague Lane home in Westbury, near the Hicksville border last month.

Frank A. Tarentino III, DEA special agent in charge, said nitazines are sometimes "up to 100 times more powerful than fentanyl."

He said a type of the synthetic opioid was recently found in the bust at the Westbury home. It's the first time this type of nitazine, pressed into a pill, was found on Long Island. The pills appeared to look like a legitimate prescription medication, like oxycodone, Tarentino said. Consequently, most people don't know what they're ingesting. "This is what's killing people. This is what is more powerful than fentanyl that can cause these overdose deaths and poisonings that we are seeing play out across the United States," said Tarentino.