POLICE STRUGGLE TO KEEP FENTANYL OFF STREETS

Three Recent Overdoses May Signal Return Of The Deadly Narcotic

When Louise Lamborn last spoke with her son, he was watching the
movie "Shrek" with his 8-year-old namesake.

Nathan Lamborn promised to call his mother back later that night, a
year ago May 6. He also promised to visit the next day.

He never kept those promises.

"When he was watching the movie with me, he just fell on the bed,"
the younger "Nate" Lamborn said. "I tried to wake him up, and then my
mom came home and tried and he still didn't wake up."

Lamborn was one of eight people who died in Delaware last spring from
suspected drug overdoses involving fentanyl, a chronic-pain drug
introduced in Belgium in the late 1950s. Lamborn's toxicology tests
found no traces of heroin, but several of the others' deaths were
attributed to a deadly mixture of heroin and fentanyl.

Wilmington police first saw the mixture in the city last summer, but
there were earlier reports from the Drug Enforcement Administration
of overdoses in many major American cities, including Philadelphia,
where 30 people died.

Delaware authorities are hoping they won't see that same kind of
spike in heroin overdoses -- and deaths -- again this spring. But
last month, there were three suspected heroin overdoses in New Castle
County: a 34-year-old woman on April 6, a 51-year-old man on April 9,
and a 50-year-old man on April 10. All the victims survived. It's not
yet known whether fentanyl was involved.

"Certainly we don't have the crisis we had last year," New Castle
County paramedics spokeswoman Sgt. Kelli Starr-Leach said.

But Philadelphia DEA spokesman Bill Hocker isn't hopeful that
fentanyl overdoses are a thing of the past: "We saw this mixture on
the streets of Wilmington last year, and I'm sure we'll see it again."

Last year, during the rash of deaths, police tried to identify heroin
dealers by their product labels -- "Hummer," "Diesel" and "BMW" -- to
determine the origin of the tainted heroin.

"Some of the bags we found last year were 100 percent fentanyl,"
Wilmington police Capt. Sean Finerty said. "They say a small amount
of that can kill you, and we were finding two and three times more of
a fatal dosage in those bags."

Packets of suspected heroin labeled "Most Wanted" were found at the
scenes of two of last month's overdoses.

"That was the first we've seen of this brand," said Finerty.

The packets have been sent to labs for testing to determine their
ingredients. Though police have arrested several people with "Most
Wanted" packets on them, they haven't linked the brand to anyone yet.

One dealer caught

While people are still buying and using, authorities -- so far --
haven't seen the mass distribution of the heroin-and-fentanyl mixture
that they saw in 2006.

Hocker said heroin dealers are getting their hands on fentanyl by
robbing pharmacies, using fraudulent prescriptions and taking
advantage of illicit distribution by patients, physicians and pharmacists.

He thinks heroin dealers are incorporating fentanyl into their heroin
to increase their sales and profit.

Less than a kilogram of heroin was seized in Delaware in 2006,
according to the DEA. But that doesn't mean the drug is hard to find here.

The drug usually comes to the United States from Colombia in South
America or South Asia at prices that range from $40,000 to $200,000 per kilo.

"For the money, probably heroin has the biggest profit margin,"
Finerty said. "A gram of cocaine on the street is about $100, but
heroin is about $600 a gram."

Because of its railroad, highway and seaport access, heroin usually
comes to northern Delaware from Philadelphia, because big-city
dealers think they're less likely to get caught here, Hocker said.

Joseph Bentley wasn't one of the lucky ones. He became the first
Delawarean arrested for knowingly selling fentanyl-laced heroin.

He admitted that he sold the deadly mixture in April 2006 to Seth
Boyd, 30, of Dover.

Bentley continued to sell the tainted heroin after he learned that
Boyd had died after snorting the drug.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Feb. 22.

U.S. Attorney Colm F. Connolly called Bentley a small-time dealer,
but his agency was sending a message that "selling tainted drugs
carries a high price."

Fences mended, and then ...

Nathan Lamborn Jr. is painfully aware of that price.

A poster board of pictures, and his memories, are all the youngster
has left of his father.

He said his father got off the phone that night a year ago, took a
deep breath and went to sleep.

At 5 a.m. the next morning, Louise Lamborn received a phone call from
her other son. He told her that Nate was dead.

The toxicology report showed traces of OxyContin, methadone and
cocaine in his system. Combined with the fentanyl in his system, the
mixture of drugs killed him.

Louise Lamborn said her son had battled a heroin addiction for at
least five years. It drove an emotional wedge between them.

One day last spring, as they began rebuilding their relationship,
they discussed the recent fentanyl deaths. "He was smart enough to
know that fentanyl would kill him," she said.

"It was almost like the Lord gave him back to me for six months for
us to reconcile," Lamborn said. "Then he was gone."