FENTANYL LAB SHUT DOWN

Painkiller Linked To At Least 8 Overdose Deaths In Delaware, 30 In PA. And N.J.

A Mexican fentanyl lab that was shut down last month by federal drug
agents and Mexican officials may have been the source of the powerful
painkiller that was mixed with heroin and connected to at least eight
overdose deaths in Delaware and nearly 30 in Philadelphia and New Jersey.

John Walters, who heads the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, said Monday the lethal mixture has caused at least
100 deaths from Philadelphia to Chicago in the past few months.

The tainted heroin made its debut in Delaware in mid-April, and law
enforcement issued warnings that urged drug users to avoid the highly
addictive narcotic. The state medical examiner was unable Monday to
provide the exact number of deaths in Delaware due to the lethal
fentanyl-heroin concoction.

From mid-April to mid-May, however, the number of heroin overdoses
spiked, leaving three people dead in unrelated incidents throughout
New Castle County on April 25 alone.

Pittsburgh deaths spike

Almost as quickly as they spiked, the cases have declined.

Authorities in Pittsburgh, however, reported over the weekend a spate
of 20 overdoses and one death in that city.

"It's been quiet here and in Philadelphia for the past three weeks,"
said Tim Bucher, special agent in charge of Delaware's Drug
Enforcement Administration office.

"It blew through here, Philly and Camden," Bucher said Monday. "It
wasn't locally produced, but it was like a batch came in, was around
for a while and was out."

Wilmington police Capt. Sean Finerty, who heads the city's vice unit,
said there haven't been any fentanyl-heroin deaths in Wilmington
since early May.

"When we were making all those drug busts around that time, there
were some bags recovered containing 100 percent fentanyl, some with
no fentanyl in it and some with half fentanyl, half heroin," Finerty
said. "Some of the bags we found that had fentanyl stamped on them
were the same as those that didn't contain any fentanyl. But to the
untrained drug dealer on the street without a chemistry degree, it
was just hit or miss."

The federal drug czar speculated millions of deadly doses of the
fentanyl-laced heroin may still be on the street.

The Mexican bust last month was significant and resulted in the
arrest of five people, one of whom Walters identified as "the chemist."

Few Details Released

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokeswoman Rogene Waite said
federal authorities would not identify the location in Mexico where
the lab was shut down or the date of the raid.

She said the DEA does not have arrest powers in foreign countries and
any arrests were made by the host government, with which the DEA is
cooperating.

"We are trying to determine if these arrests and the lab in Mexico
are connected with the fentanyl-heroin deaths in the United States,"
Waite said. "At this point, we do not know if it's connected."

The Associated Press contributed to this article.