DEADLY HEROIN COCKTAIL HITS NORTHEAST N.J.

The dime bags seized in Cranford were called "Bloody Money" and "Superman."

The drug samples found in Hillside during a vehicle stop were called
"Dunkin Donuts."

But more ominous than the names were what authorities announced
yesterday they found inside: fentanyl-laced heroin.

It's the first confirmed appearance in northeast New Jersey of a drug
cocktail that has in recent months become a public health scourge,
trigging a rash of overdoses and deaths in South Jersey, Philadelphia
and New York.

"Of all the drugs available on the street right now, fentanyl-laced
heroin is the deadliest of the deadly," said Jim O'Brien, CEO of
South Jersey's Maryville Treatment Centers, where there have been two
overdose deaths in the last month. "Nothing else will kill you as
quickly as this stuff does."

Officials have blamed fentanyl for more than 500 deaths nationwide
this year and authorities in northern New Jersey have kept a wary eye
as the drug slowly encircled the area from the north and south.

"It's almost like a disease spreading," Union County Prosecutor
Theodore J. Romankow said. "We've got to get parents to keep an even
closer eye on their children and citizens to start thinking more
about the dangers of drug abuse."

Fentanyl is a synthetic drug 80 times more potent than morphine.
Developed by New Brunswick's Johnson & Johnson, it has been used
legally for decades in anesthesia and pain management. The fentanyl
found on the streets is being manufactured illegally, law enforcement
officials say.

When mixed with heroin and injected, snorted or smoked, it provides a
powerful high. New Jersey heroin is dangerous enough on its own --
it's the purest in the nation, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.

But it's the combination of the drugs, both depressants, that has a
particularly lethal effect.

"With an overdose of fentanyl -- and it doesn't take much -- you just
stop breathing," said Steve Marcus, executive director of the New
Jersey Poison Information and Education System. "It's not a nice
high. Either you pass out, you get muscle contractions in your chest,
or you die."

Because it cannot be detected through taste or smell, addicts are
sometimes unaware they are taking fentanyl-laced heroin and assume
their heroin is being diluted with more benign cutting agents, like
flour or starch.

Other times, dealers make it known they're pushing a new product to
help drive sales.

"They are looking to market something that will get the attention of
the addicts," said Rogene Waite, a spokeswoman for the DEA. "It
creates word on the street."

Health care officials say as little as 125 micrograms -- the same
weight as four grains of salt -- can cause an overdose. Yet those
trace amounts are leaving a path of destruction that continues to widen.

On Tuesday, the New York City Health Department issued a warning that
17 people have died since May in Gotham after taking fentanyl-spiked
cocaine or heroine.

Last week, officials in Ocean County announced a surge in overdose
deaths -- 53 in the first seven months, as opposed to 56 all of last
year -- and blamed fentanyl.

It was discovered in Sussex County for the first time in June, when
the drug was detected in heroin after a young man's overdose in
Hamburg, said Sussex County Assistant Prosecutor Tom Reed.

In May, a reputed member of the Latin Kings street gang was arrested
in his Camden apartment with 1,300 bags of fentanyl-laced heroin and
$5,200 cash, authorities said.

The State Police report that a number of cases involving
fentanyl-laced heroin have come to their attention, mostly in its
South Regional Laboratory, where there have been 91 confirmed cases
as of Aug. 8, including 30 that were sent in since July 20.

The samples found in Union County and verified in the county's
laboratory appear to be the first in that part of the state.

Representatives for prosecutors' offices in Essex, Hunterdon,
Middlesex, Morris and Somerset Counties say they have not yet seen
confirmed evidence of the drug. But it appears to be spreading fast,
often following commuter rail lines, Romankow said.

"They are bringing the stuff in on the trains," he said. "It's a safe
way to travel. They get off at a station, make a sale, then get back
on the train and head to the next town."

Staff Writers Joe Ryan, Jim Lockwood, Matt Dowling, William
Kleinknecht contributed to this report. Robert E. Misseck covers Union County.