AUTHORITIES SAY USER LED TO FENTANYL ARRESTS

Woman Found In Car On Detroit Street Helped Point To Alleged Source
Of Drug That Has Killed 133

DETROIT -- A suburban woman found earlier this month with a syringe
in her arm -- slumped unconscious over the steering wheel of her car
on a Highland Park street -- was a breakthrough in investigators'
around-the-clock search for the source of heroin laced with fentanyl
that has killed 133 people since last September.

The woman recovered and information she provided allowed
investigators to work their way up the heroin-fentanyl drug chain,
leading to the Thursday morning arrest of Darien Rees, 45.
Authorities believe Rees was the supplier for a major street sales
outlet in the Jefferies housing project on the east side of John Lodge Freeway.

Rees was arrested by deputies and agents from the Drug Enforcement
Administration in his 2006 Cadillac, allegedly on his way to making a
delivery at the housing project, said Wayne County Sheriff Warren C. Evans.

Investigators said they found Rees carrying a large prescription
bottle containing 80 individual foil-wrapped packets of the
heroin-fentanyl mixture. The packets were sold for $10 to $20 under
the street names "magic" or "A-1," Evans said.

"The fentanyl we obtained in our undercover purchases was packaged in
the same aluminum foil as the fentanyl on the individual (Rees) that
we arrested and we are very comfortable they are one and the same," Evans said.

Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano warned that Rees' arrest does
not mean the danger of overdose is lessened.

"Thinking that it is safe now because a dealer has been taken off the
street is ludicrous," Ficano said.

"We have been putting the message out that overdose, not only with
fentanyl but overdose with cocaine or heroin is going to be lethal,
and that is proven by the statistics."

Wayne County averages two to three overdose deaths a day and had more
than 400 last year, Ficano said. The 70 fentanyl-related deaths last
year represented 17 percent of the fatal overdoses. Investigators had
Rees under surveillance for several days. His daily routine was to
leave his apartment on Elijah McCoy in the mornings and drive to the
nearby Woodbridge development at the Jefferies housing project, where
he would deliver the drugs to sellers, Evans said.

Deputies arrested a second man on Thursday who earlier had sold the
mixed drugs to an undercover deputy. A third man was arrested a day earlier.

Evans said state and federal investigators are trying to link Rees
and the others arrested with the sale of drugs that killed the
purchasers almost immediately.

Rees was charged with three counts of delivery and manufacturing of
narcotics, delivery of marijuana, felon in possession of a firearm,
possession of body armor, and four counts of felony firearm
possession. The charges carry maximum penalties of 86 years in prison
and/or fines of $777,000.

Evans said five people, including the two on Thursday, have been
arrested in the investigation, which is ongoing.

"Many of the drug buyers we have observed throughout this
investigation are residents of suburban communities that come to this
location to buy drugs," Evans said.