AGENTS CLOSE MEXICAN FENTANYL DRUG LAB

CHICAGO -- U.S. agents, working in cooperation with the Mexican
government, have closed down a lab in Mexico that might be the main
source of a powerful painkiller that has killed at least 100 heroin
users in eight states, the federal drug czar said Monday.

John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, said it's still not clear whether the painkiller,
fentanyl, was mixed with heroin at the lab in Mexico or after it
entered the United States. ADVERTISEMENT

"There may be more than one source," Walters said. "We think this is
the principal source."

Forty-eight people died of drug overdoses between May 19 and May 30
in metro Detroit, the Tri-State's primary source city for crack
cocaine and heroin. Health officials there believe a majority of
those deaths have been caused by fentanyl-laced heroin or crack cocaine.

Deaths caused by fentanyl-laced drugs have occurred in Illinois,
Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and
Maryland, Walters said.

However, officials with the drug section of the West Virginia State
Police's forensics lab said last week that there have been no signs
of the painkiller in the Mountain State.

Five people were arrested during the May bust in Mexico, including
one Walters described as "the chemist." He referred specific
questions to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, which declined to
provide details immediately.

Walters said that the dealers may have started using Fentanyl because
they were looking for a competitive advantage on the street, but that
inept mixing -- or cutting -- of the drug combination made it deadly.

He also warned that millions of deadly doses of the fentanyl-laced
heroin might still be on the streets. Fentanyl-laced cocaine had
turned up in some cities, as well, he said.