Could also be that a chunk of the pills were in “pill form” as a smuggling technique disguised as some other pill or to take up less space, to be processed later and blended into something else.
Discussion
Could also be driven by idiosyncrasies in laws governing penalties for trafficking illicit goods. Will the penalty scale with the number of pills, or the weight of the fentanyl (active ingredient) in the pills. Does the penalty change if the pills are “lethal” or not etc. A lot of variables.