An estimated $40,000 worth of heroin laced with fentanyl was found lying on a Burlington street Thursday morning.

The Burlington Police Department was contacted at 7:53 a.m. by a person walking in the 2700 block of Eldermont Street who saw the plastic bags of an unknown white substance lying in the middle of the road.

TLDR someone dropped their drugs in the road

— Natalie A. Janicello (@natalie_allison) September 1, 2016 Police, emergency management officials, firefighters and narcotics officers spent the morning at the scene and elsewhere trying to determine what the white powdery substance was that was found in the middle of Eldermont Street. Some of the powder had spilled directly onto the pavement.

Believing it to be some type of narcotics, officers initially weren’t sure what the substance was, specifically.

There's a pile of white powder in the road they aren't letting me get near. Officers awaiting results of test on it. pic.twitter.com/OjF880lZsi

— Natalie A. Janicello (@natalie_allison) September 1, 2016 They conducted cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin field tests on the powder, said Assistant Chief Chris Verdeck, and eventually “determined it was most likely heroin cut with fentanyl.”

The small plastic bags of the substance, packaged within a larger plastic bag that had broken at the bottom, weighed about nine ounces total Verdeck said. The street value of the drugs — a trafficking amount — is estimated to be $40,000, according to the police department.

Sgt. Todd Long, of the Alamance Narcotics Enforcement Team, said heroin currently sells for $120 to more than $200 per gram, a price that can go up if the drug also contains fentanyl.

Here's what $40k worth of heroin/fentanyl looks like. pic.twitter.com/qfLqyESwqk

— Natalie A. Janicello (@natalie_allison) September 1, 2016 “It’s just a very dangerous drug,” Long said of fentanyl. “It’s one of the up and coming drugs on the street that’s becoming an epidemic, along with heroin.”

Long said fentanyl, which can also be absorbed through skin or accidentally inhaled by someone who comes in contact with it, “can have a significant impact on you.”

A few months ago while Burlington officers were being trained in the administration of Naloxone, a drug that reverses opioid overdoses, EMS instructors warned the officers about not touching fentanyl they may find at the scene of such a call for that very reason.

Neither Burlington nor ANET officers have determined how the heroin got there or to whom it belonged.

Verdeck said beyond the field test that was conducted by police Thursday, the substance would be sent to a laboratory for further testing.

Eldermont Street was closed for around three hours while officers awaited testing results to determine how to dispose of the powder. Firefighters from the Burlington Fire Department stood by during that time until the powder was removed from the road.

Anyone with information on the heroin or why it was left in the street is asked to contact the Burlington police Department at 336-229-3500 or Alamance County-Wide CrimeStoppers at 336-229-7100.