Tag: fentanyl epidemic

Ohio Cops Find Enough Fentanyl To Wipe Out The Whole State

Authorities also seized 5,000 grams of heroin and 1,500 grams of methamphetamine.

Even a tiny amount of fentanyl the size of a grain of rice can be fatal, which is why authorities in Ohio were so shocked to seize 20 kilograms of fentanyl during a recent drug bust.

Vance Callender, Homeland Security Investigations special agent in charge for Michigan and Ohio, participated in the raid, which included agents from Montogomery County Sheriff’s Office, Ohio Attorney General’s Office, FBI, and Homeland Security Investigations, according to News 5 Cleveland.

Callender said, “20 kilograms of fentanyl is enough to kill the entire population of Ohio, many times over. As this significant seizure makes clear, HSI and our partners are united in our resolve to protect our communities and our country from the deadly scourge of drug trafficking. We stand ready to use every tool and resource at our disposal to attack and dismantle these organizations from the low-level dealers to the source of supply with our law enforcement partners.”

A Weapon Of Mass Destruction

Dave Yost, Ohio Attorney General, that the amount of fentanyl, worth millions, was large enough that it could be thought of as a weapon of mass destruction. He said that the bust highlighted the “enormity of the opioid problem” in his state.

He added, ”This is an enormous amount of deadly drugs that will no longer be on our streets.”

At the bust, authorities also seized 5,000 grams of heroin and 1,500 grams of methamphetamine. They recovered about $30,000 in cash and three firearms.

Three suspects were charged in connection with the raid: Shamar Davis, 31, Anthony Franklin, 20, and Grady Jackson, 37. They’re facing charges for being felons in possession of firearms and for distributing 400 grams or more of fentanyl.

Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck said that the men posed a huge danger to the community.

“These illegal drugs ruin lives, destroy families, fuel violence, drives up property crime, and wrecks neighborhoods. Anyone associated with it—especially those who sell and traffic it—are doing violence to people and causing harm in our communities,” he said.

The Biggest Fentanyl Bust Of The Year

Although the size of the fentanyl seizure is astounding, it’s not the biggest bust on record. Earlier this year, Customs and Border Protection officials near the Mexican border found more than 100 kilos of fentanyl hidden in a tractor trailer that was also carrying cucumbers, and meth. That seizure, which was made with the help of drug-sniffing dogs, netted fentanyl worth at least $3.5 million, authorities said at the time.

View the original article at thefix.com

1 November 2019
Accidental Opioid Deaths Among Babies, Toddlers Rise

Opioid overdoses among children increased more than 268% between 1999 and 2016.

There is a second, often overlooked group of victims of the opioid crisis: babies and toddlers who are dying of accidental opioid overdoses.

Fentanyl Exposure

One of the most jarring cases is that of 13-month-old Liam Savoy Oneill, who was found dead in September beside his father, Patrick Savoy Oneill, 29. Patrick was unresponsive, and later died at the hospital. The pair was found by Liam’s mother, Emily Guillory.

Authorities believe that Patrick overdosed, and Liam was exposed to fentanyl that was left around, according to Fox 10.

“The officers who arrived at the scene located narcotics and narcotics paraphernalia in the bedroom, near where both of them were discovered,” said Santa Rosa Police Department Lt. Dan Marincik. ”It’s something you wouldn’t wish anybody to experience, it was tough on our officers, and I can only imagine what the family is going through,”

Guillory said that Patrick had been attending NA meetings, and that he never would have intentionally harmed Liam.

A 268% Increase In Accidental Overdoses Among Children

It’s difficult to know exactly how many children are dying of opioid overdoses, but research published last year found that opioid overdoses among children increased more than 268% between 1999 and 2016.

Most of the deaths were among teens ages 15-19, but the authors noted, “time trends revealed a steady linear increase among children aged 0 to 4 years and those aged 5 to 9 years.”

Last Christmas, an 18-month-old in Michigan died after ingesting an “extraordinary” amount of fentanyl. Authorities said that the girl’s parents were packaging the drug in their home, and she accidentally ingested it.

“The nation is experiencing an opioid epidemic. However, to see an infant experience such a tragic death on Christmas morning as a result of ingesting a large quantity of her parents’ fentanyl is truly gut-wrenching,” Eric Smith, Macomb County prosecutor, said in a news release reported by The Washington Post.

Most of the reports of baby and toddler deaths involve a child getting into drugs that had been left around their home. Usually the exposure is accidental—but sometimes, it’s intentional. Last month, a Maine mother was charged in connection with the death of her one-year-old daughter.

Kimberly Nelligan, 33, admitted that she had rubbed what she believed to be heroin on the girl’s gums in order to help her sleep, according to The Bangor News. Nelligan said she had done the same with her two older children, but in this case the drugs contained fentanyl, and her daughter was found unresponsive in her crib.

View the original article at thefix.com

18 October 2019
Pennsylvania Sees Drop In Overdose Deaths For First Time In Years

An analysis by the DEA found that in 2018, Pennsylvania saw an encouraging 18% drop in fatal overdoses.

A new DEA report finds that the state of Pennsylvania saw an overall 18% drop in overdose deaths in 2018, the first drop after years of increasing rates.

Southwestern counties in Pennsylvania saw the most improvement, seeing a 41% reduction in fatal overdoses. Philadelphia, which had the highest fatal overdose rate in the state in 2017, saw improvements as well, resulting in having the second highest rate in 2018.

Numbers By County

However, the recovery wasn’t seen in all parts of the state. Eastern and central Pennsylvania endured some of the worst rates yet in the same time frame. In Schuylkill County, the overdose death rate jumped from 27 per 100,000 residents to 49 per 100,000 residents in 2018. Twenty three other counties also saw increases in fatal overdose rates, and three more saw no change.

The places that saw a reduction in fatal overdoses also saw an overall drop rate in overdoses in general. Officials aren’t sure exactly what led to this decrease, but it’s likely that the increase in distribution of naloxone and greater access to treatment played a major role. Most recently, a safe injection site was ruled federally legal by a judge against the wishes of the U.S. Justice Department.

The DEA report also provided some insight with statistical data. Most people who died of overdose were found to have more than one drug in their system. Around 87% had more than two drugs, 46% had more than four drugs, and 16% had six or more drugs in their body.

Fentanyl Sweeps Through The State

Fentanyl, which has exacerbated the opioid crisis across the nation, has not spared Pennsylvania. About 70% of all overdose deaths in the state involved the stuff. Fentanyl-adjacent drugs and other synthetic opioids were involved in 23% of deaths.

The report included demographic data, showing that 79% of deaths were white, 13% were Black, and 3% were Hispanic. While this may initially seem like white residents are disproportionately affected, the DEA notes that this is reflective of the demographics of the state’s population.

However, overdoses are disproportionately affecting younger residents, especially the presence of fentanyl. Among the 15-24 and 25-34 age groups, 75% of overdose deaths involved fentanyl.

View the original article at thefix.com

8 October 2019
Chinese Official Refutes Trump's Fentanyl Claims

The official alleges that since China added fentanyl-related drugs to their controlled substances list last May that no new smuggling cases have come to light.

Amidst a recent war of words between China and the United States over fentanyl smuggling, a narcotics official in China said at a news conference that while the two countries have a “good cooperative relationship,” they have “extremely limited” cooperation on investigations into and prosecution of fentanyl cases.

President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials have alleged that the Asian superpower is the primary source of the synthetic opioid and derivatives that are smuggled into the U.S., a claim which Chinese drug officials have vehemently denied, and in turn levied allegations that the U.S. hasn’t done enough to curb fentanyl abuse within its own borders.

Finding Common Ground

The statement by Liu Yuejin, Vice Commissioner of the China National Narcotics Control Commission, suggested that the countries had yet to reach common ground on how to tackle the global fentanyl problem.

Reuters quoted a broadcast from Chinese state television that covered Liu’s appearance at a news conference to detail how the country was waging war on fentanyl production. Liu noted that “looking at cases, counter-narcotics law enforcement departments from China and the United States have for many years maintained a good cooperative relationship.”

He then added, “But cooperation on investigating and prosecuting fentanyl-related substances is extremely limited.”

Liu went on to claim that since 2012, the U.S. has only presented “clues” on six fentanyl-related smuggling cases to Chinese officials, and only three of those cases reached a positive resolution.

By comparison, China had provided U.S. law enforcement with nearly 400 leads on fentanyl-related packages since 2012, Liu said.

Controlled Substance Ban

Liu further noted that since May 1, 2019—when China added the entire class of fentanyl-related drugs to its list of controlled substances at the behest of Trump—no fentanyl-related smuggling cases had come to light. He also claimed that fentanyl-related deaths in the States have risen further.

Both points underscored, as Liu suggested, “that President Trump’s tweets about fentanyl in the U.S. mainly coming from China are not true at all,” referring to an August 23, 2019 tweet from the president in which he urged all postal and delivery service carriers to “search for and refuse” all deliveries of fentanyl from China.

As for the notion that Chinese-produced fentanyl has been entering the U.S. through Mexico, which Trump alleged in a June tweet, Liu said that “police from [China, the U.S. and Mexico] have not detected or cracked a single case. Then what is the basis for the conclusion drawn by certain U.S. politicians? They have sat at home and imagined such things out of thin air.”

In regard to Trump’s tweet, CNN stated that his assertion that 90% of the drugs entering the United States come through Mexico had some flaws, given that the fentanyl from China is purer and can then be used to manufacture more narcotics, while Mexico imports more fentanyl from China than U.S. law enforcement seizes at the border.

View the original article at thefix.com

20 September 2019
"60 Minutes" Tracks Down Fentanyl "Kingpin" In China

The show’s producers tracked down and confronted one of the primary sources offering fentanyl online to US residents.

60 Minutes recently did a segment on the fentanyl crisis, tracking down a man identified as something of a “kingpin” for the trafficking of this incredibly potent drug from China. Shipments of fentanyl from China via the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) are considered by federal authorities to be a massive source of the influx of the drug that has been causing mass overdose cases across the country.

Shopping For Fentanyl Online

After two overdose deaths in a week in Akron, Ohio, assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Cronin decided to investigate how the synthetic opioid, which can be 50 times more potent than heroin, was making its way so easily into American hands. He found that ordering fentanyl online was shockingly simple.

“We just said, ‘Hey,’ according to the source’s instructions, ‘we’re interested in buying fentanyl,’” said Cronin. “And the result was, to say the least, surprising. We have dozens, probably over 50 different drug trafficking networks reaching out to us saying, ‘We have fentanyl. We have even more powerful fentanyl analogs. Whatever you want, we’ll get it for you for cheap. We’ll get it for you in bulk.’”

All of the replies came from China.

According to similar investigations by Ohio Senator Rob Portman and his staff, these sources guaranteed shipments that went through the USPS due to delays in implementing shipping procedures designed to stop fentanyl trafficking.

“That’s because after 9/11, all private carriers like FedEx were required to give U.S. Customs advance descriptions and tracking of foreign packages,” 60 Minutes reports. “The Postal Service was allowed to delay because of the cost.”

Although the USPS has tried to implement these requirements, they say that China is not cooperating.

Locating The Source

Somehow, 60 Minutes producer Bob Anderson tracked down a man named Guanghua Zheng, who was identified as one of the primary sources offering fentanyl online to U.S. residents, and confronted him outside of a Shanghai grocery store. Zheng insisted that he no longer does this before the woman who was with him intervened.

The U.S. government has “sealed” off Zheng’s offshore bank accounts, shut down 40 of his websites selling illicit substances like fentanyl in 20 languages, and officially designated him and his sons as “foreign drug kingpins.” China has promised to shut down the synthetic opioid trafficking networks operating within its borders, but it’s unclear whether they are following through.

During the 60 Minutes segment, Justin Herdman, U.S. Attorney in Cleveland, repeated a claim that fentanyl can cause intoxication, overdose, and even death through mere skin contact. However, in 2018, harm reduction activist Chad Sabora demonstrated this to be a myth by holding fentanyl-laced powder in his hand for several minutes without effect.

View the original article at thefix.com

19 September 2019
Former Eagle Scout Turned Fentanyl Kingpin Gets His Day In Court

Although the Utah man is only charged in connection with one death, prosecutors say that his pill operation has been linked to “dozens” of fatal overdoses.

A former Eagle Scout from Utah is on trial facing 13 federal charges connected with running an organization that used imported fentanyl from China to produce counterfeit OxyContin and sell it on the dark web, reaping millions in profits.

The prosecution argues that Aaron Shamo, 29, was the kingpin behind the operation. The defense argues that Shamo was roped into the organization and did not fully understand the consequences of his actions because of a learning disability, according to the AP.

Prosecutor Michael Gadd was blunt during his opening statement: “Death, drugs and money. That’s why we’re here.”

Shamo is being charged with criminal enterprise, drug trafficking and money laundering. He is also facing charges in connection to the death of one customer who snorted a pill that Shamo made and died. However, his defense attorney said that he is only guilty of some of the charges.

“He’s guilty of many of these counts. Aaron’s owning what he did,” defense attorney Greg Skordas said, according to Deseret News. However, “the evidence will not establish that Aaron Shamo caused the death of another, or that he was the organizer, leader, mastermind of this organization,” Skordas added.

The Big Raid

Law enforcement raided the home where Shamo lived with his parents in 2016. They found a pill press in the basement, along with hundreds of thousands of pills and more than $1 million in cash. Shamo—who had up to 20 employees at some points—reportedly paid people to allow fentanyl to be shipped to their homes. He collected the drugs, cut them with other substances, pressed pills and stamped them so that they resembled authentic prescription pills. That allowed him to produce a pill for 1 cent, and sell it for up to $20 on the dark web.

Despite that level of sophistication, Shamo’s parents insist he should not be found guilty of all charges.

“They’re just a bunch of kids who did really bad things,” his mother Becky Shamo said. “He’s a good kid. He’s only 29. He deserves a chance at life.”

His father Mike said, “He was brought in and saw the opportunity for making money, and he didn’t truly understand the danger behind what he was doing, how dangerous the drugs were. I think he was able to separate what he was doing because he never saw the customer. To him, it was just numbers on a screen.”

Although Shamo is only charged in connection with one death, prosecutors say that his pill operation has been linked to “dozens” of fatal overdoses.

View the original article at thefix.com

15 August 2019
Unfounded Fears Linger About Accidental Exposure to Fentanyl

Lawmakers have introduced a new bill that perpetuates fears about fentanyl that many physicians consider unfounded.

Though a wealth of information has been made public about the relatively low risk presented by accidental exposure to the synthetic opioid, fentanyl, lawmakers, law enforcement and media outlets continue to issue warnings and even propose legislation to provide safeguards to prevent overdose.

A recent article in Reason cited a bill put forward by a bipartisan group of Congressmen that would allocate federal money to local police for drug screening devices that was spurred in part by concern over exposure to fentanyl.

It also quoted recent comments from a Toledo, Ohio newspaper and New York State police chief, both of which voiced concern over the alleged dangers presented by “even a minute trace of the drug.” Such fears are contrary to countless studies and testimony by medical professionals and health groups, which have stated that casual skin exposure to fentanyl presents little chance of significant harm than any other drugs.

The bill, introduced by Representatives Conor Lamb (D-PA), David Joyce (R-OH) and David Trone (D-MD), would establish a new grant program at the Department of Justice that would assist local law enforcement agencies in securing interdiction devices—portable chemical screening technology—that would help officers determine the presence of fentanyl and other drugs at a crime scene.

“This legislation will increase the safety of our officers and will streamline the substance testing process, providing real-time results to reduce the backlog in the legal system,” said Lamb in a statement.

While well-intended, the bill perpetuates fears about fentanyl that many physicians consider unfounded, according to Reason. Coverage in the New York Times noted that while fentanyl and carfentanil are dangerous opioids, the drugs must be deliberately consumed, not touched or inhaled by accident, to present a health risk.

“I would say it’s extraordinarily improbable that a first responder would be poisoned by an ultra-potent opioid,” said Dr. David Juurlink, a clinical researcher based in Toronto. “I don’t say it can’t happen. But for it to happen would require extraordinary circumstances, and those would be very hard to achieve.”

Despite testimony of that nature, fear about exposure to fentanyl continues to find its way into the public sphere. The Toledo Blade called for immediate passage of Lamb’s bill, stating “police, firefighters and other first responders are in jeopardy if they come into contact with even a minute trace of the drug.”

And in a February 2019 interview, John Anton, police chief for DeWitt, New York, said on WRVO Public Media that he feared his officers are “getting exposed to fentanyl, getting it on their clothes, bringing it home to their families, getting it on their boots and so on.”

As many medical professionals have noted, such fears are largely unfounded.

“I want to tell first responders, ‘Look, you’re safe,’” said Dr. Jeremy S. Faust, an emergency doctor at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, in the New York Times coverage. “You can touch these people. You can interact with them. You can go on and do the heroic lifesaving work that you do for anyone else.”

View the original article at thefix.com

7 June 2019
USPS, FedEx Remain Easiest Way To Ship Fentanyl Into US

“The sheer logistical nature of trying to pick out which packages contain opioids makes it much more challenging,” said a Customs and Border Protection official.

A recent federal court case involving 43 members of a methamphetamine distribution network with ties to the Sinaloa Cartel again highlighted the relative ease with which the United States Postal Service (USPS) and private carriers like FedEx can be used to deliver powerful synthetic opioids into the United States.

The case involved a San Diego-based network that shipped methamphetamine and the “club drug” gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) to locations throughout the U.S. using the postal service and FedEx.

Coverage in Quartz detailed how increases in express shipping, combined with a lack of sufficient staffing at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency and carriers like the UPS allow such transactions to take place.

Former FBI agent Dennis Franks said that the current method of stopping drugs from entering the country through the mail is like “putting your finger in a dike, but there’s just not enough fingers to put in all the holes.”

The 43 defendants in the federal case used the USPS and fraudulent FedEx accounts to mail drugs to sub-distributors. The FedEx accounts were “billed to and paid for” by large corporations in the belief that the companies would not notice smaller shipment costs.

A joint task force involving the Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Attorney’s Offices, sheriff’s and police departments, the United States Postal Inspection Service and Federal Bureau of Prisons collaborated to file indictments against 43 members of the network on May 21.

Despite efforts like these, the practice of importing drugs through the USPS and private carriers remains a serious problem for state and federal law enforcement.

According to congressional testimony from the union that represents CBP officers, the agency needs more than double the number of inspectors currently on duty at mail sorting facilities to keep up with the volume of packages to “ensure successful interdiction.”

In the past five years, express shipments have increased by nearly 50%, while international mail shipments have risen more than 200%. But at shipping and receiving hubs like the one maintained by FedEx in Memphis, Tennessee, there were only 15 CBP officers working on the overnight shift to process 86 million shipments in 2018.

“The sheer logistical nature of trying to pick out which packages contain opioids makes it much more challenging,” said Robert E. Perez, an acting executive assistant commissioner for CBP. “It’s unlike anything we’ve encountered.”

Policy changes incurred by the change in government administrations, as well as the necessity of a warrant to search any package sent via the USPS, also contribute to the overwhelming issues that confront law enforcement with mail shipments.

And as Franks noted, the cartels and related networks have their own means of assuring that their deliveries go unchallenged.

“Don’t think that these cartels don’t have their own ‘intelligence services,’” he told Quartz. “Friends, family members working on the inside. So they’re going to know how many agents or officers are assigned to which FedEx facility, when they’re working, and when they’re not.”

View the original article at thefix.com

6 June 2019
New York Launches Fentanyl Education Campaign

The campaign will target neighborhoods that have been hit hardest by the opioid epidemic and will promote the carrying and use of naloxone.

The New York Health Department launched a public information campaign Tuesday designed to prevent overdose deaths by educating opioid users on safe use and especially on the dangers of fentanyl.

The campaign will target neighborhoods that have been hit hardest by the opioid epidemic and will promote the carrying and use of naloxone, a medication that blocks opioid receptors in the brain and can stop a dangerous overdose.

According to New York Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot, fentanyl – the synthetic opioid that’s up to 50 times more potent than heroin – is “driving the overdose epidemic in New York City.”

“People who use drugs should know there are ways to reduce their risk of overdose,” said Barbot in a statement. “If you use drugs, don’t use them by yourself; if you overdose, someone else will need to call 911. This information can save lives.”

Campaign posters and ads on subways, bus shelters, billboards, and the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, to name a just a few spots, will warn drug users that fentanyl can be found in illicit batches of heroin, cocaine, crack, and other common street drugs. Its tasteless and odorless, making detection impossible without special kits, and can easily cause rapid and deadly overdose. Other advice includes never using alone, avoiding mixing drugs, and carrying naloxone whenever possible.

For $730,000, a small bill for a city of this size, HealingNYC estimates that up to 400 lives could be saved before 2022. City Council Health Committee Chair Mark Levine stressed that saving as many lives as possible needs to be the goal, regardless of whether the drugs involved are legal.

“Every New Yorker should know that if you use drugs, there are things you can do to mitigate the chances of a deadly overdose,” said Levine. “We need to be open and honest about drug use in New Your City and make the use of drugs, even if illegal, as safe as possible. This program will save lives.”

A related public awareness campaign to provide free fentanyl testing kits to the public has seen a fair amount of success. According to Junior Bazile, Director Of Programs for New York Harm Reduction Educators, the organization has seen “considerable increase in the uptake of those testing kits.”

Nationally, synthetic opioids (mostly fentanyl) were involved in 19,413 of the 42,249 opioid overdose deaths in 2016, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

In New York City alone, there were 1,487 overdose deaths in 2017, with 57% of them involving fentanyl. Information campaigns and efforts to distribute and train people in the use of naloxone seem to be helping, but nothing will be certain until more recent numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are published.

View the original article at thefix.com

31 May 2019
Ohio Officials Issue Warning After Spike In Drug Overdose Deaths

Fentanyl is widely believed to be the major cause of a recent overdose wave that hit multiple Ohio counties.

Ohio law enforcement and health officials are warning residents to be extra cautious around illicit drugs, following a spike in overdoses this week that officials believe was caused by fentanyl found in cocaine and methamphetamine.

On Sunday (May 19), officials in Hamilton County, which includes the city of Cincinnati, warned about a spike in overdoses. The county saw at least 15 emergency room visits caused by overdoses in the 24 hours leading up to 6 a.m. on May 19.

“Fentanyl continues to be a major cause of overdose and is being mixed with cocaine and meth,” Tom Synan, a local police chief, said in a Facebook post sharing the press release. “Stopping fentanyl coming into the country should be the national priority. This will continue until it is. More needs to be done.”

In the release, officials warned law enforcement to not field test drugs, and to use safety equipment like gloves. The warning encouraged people to carry extra doses of the overdose drug Narcan, and to administer it any time someone was overdosing, even if they didn’t think they had ingested opioids. It also encouraged active drug users to take precautions like never using alone.

In addition, it warned people not to leave the hospital against medical advice after receiving Narcan, the opioid overdose-reversing drug, since certain opioids can last longer than the drug and people can possibly overdose again hours after receiving it.

On May 23, officials in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, issued a similar warning. There, seven people died from overdoses over two days, according to Fox 8 Cleveland.

“The recent spike in overdose deaths, which has also been noted across Ohio, is concerning and still likely a result of fentanyl. Fentanyl is continuing to impact our communities, both in the City of Cleveland and suburbs,” said Dr. Thomas Gilson, Cuyahoga County medical examiner, in a statement on Thursday (May 23).

In a post sharing that statement, Synan wrote, “Fentanyl is still cause of immediate OD/deaths on its own in cocaine & meth. Those using any street drugs should carry Narcan. If you use drugs no matter where you live, your race or religion—fentanyl could be in your drugs. Almost half of OD deaths across the country involving cocaine and meth have had fentanyl in it or used with it. You don’t know what’s in your drugs. Even if you do—you are not being ‘safe’ with illicit fentanyl. No illicit drug is ‘safe.’”

View the original article at thefix.com

25 May 2019