HEROIN DEATHS DOWN IN EASTERN IOWA

Heroin deaths, which had risen sharply in eastern Iowa in recent
years, are down because of a multi-agency police task force, law
enforcement officers said today.

Further, a dangerous combination of heroin and fentanyl, called "Drop
Dead," has not yet appeared in eastern Iowa, drug officers said
during a news conference in Cedar Rapids.

"Most of the heroin trade comes out of gangs from Chicago," said Rick
LaMere, a federal Drug Enforcement Agency agent. "We have not seen
fentanyl yet."

Heroin overdoses caused the deaths of 25 people in eastern Iowa in
the last five years, U.S. Attorney Charles Larson Sr. said. But there
have been no heroin deaths in the last five months, a decline he
attributes to a task force started in August.

The U.S. Attorney's Office has prosecuted 20 people in the last year
with heroin-related charges, Larson said.

Arrests "disrupt a network that is bringing those drugs in," Larson said.

Heroin today is far more potent than when it was first popular in the
1960s and 1970s, LaMere said. The opiate, which costs about $300 for
a half-ounce, can be snorted, which takes away the stigma of needles, he said.