Two men are behind bars after two major drug busts in Fayette County.

Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele said during a large-scale drug operation on Tuesday, its drug task force seized drugs, money and guns from those allegedly attempting to distribute it throughout the county.

"Our drug task force works with numerous members of law enforcement from a number of different departments, and through use of everything from competent confidential informants to, you know, surveillance, were able to develop suspects and develop a case," Aubele said.

The first arrest happened at a home in Connellsville where police took 55-year-old Edward Shelton into custody after finding 300 grams of suspected cocaine, 1,100 stamp bags of suspected heroin/fentanyl and xylazine, nine guns and $7,000.

"Mr. Shelton was a target of our drug task force, and we weren't surprised at what we found," Aubele said.

On the same day, in Point Marion, Aubele said officers arrested 40-year-old Robert Stratton after finding 66 grams of suspected fentanyl/xylazine in his car.

"He's not from Fayette County and he was coming into the state to deliver this," Aubele said.

Aubele said this is just the start of taking down dealers in the county, saying he intends to punish every person pedaling drugs to citizens.

"The vast majority of these people are middlemen. There's always somebody bigger to go after. So of course, the task force will always try to develop new suspects, bigger suspects, bigger busts, and our agents are working hard to make that happen," Aubele said.

The DA is also warning about a dangerous substance that was seized by both men this week.

"Some of these drugs may have contained xylazine, which is not an opioid, it's, I believe, a steroid or a narcotic that's used on an animal, like veterinarian area, which is non-responsive to Narcan," Aubele said.

He said because xylazine is not responsive to Narcan, the only treatment is at a hospital.

"It puts a person in a position where they're going to have to get to a hospital to get the treatment that they need and unfortunately, a lot of people don't make it that far," Aubele said.

KDKA-TV asked why xylazine appears to be becoming more popular.

"The reason that fentanyl has become so big is the same reason why xylazine is becoming big now," Aubele said. "It allows dealers to substitute what's harder to get to be able to help their clients achieve the high that they need. But by doing it, fentanyl, being much more powerful than heroin, causes overdoses and xylazine, again, same thing, can cause people to overdose, and the big issue with that drug, again, is the fact that Narcan does not work on it. Narcan only works on a narcotic, on an opioid like fentanyl or heroin. The unfortunate effect of law enforcement getting a lot of these drugs off the street, or being successful in, you know, in running a task force, is that these other substitutes become more widely used."

He said the busts this week are a step in the right direction to getting dangerous substances off the streets.

"The way I look at it today, our task force on Tuesday saved probably close to 2,000 lives by getting these off the streets, and we will continue to do what we need to do to continue to save lives," Aubele said.