CONCERN RISES ON TEEN HEROIN USE

Heroin has made in-roads among teens in Portage and other areas of
Kalamazoo County, including students at Portage Central High School,
according to a lieutenant on the Southwest Enforcement Team.

Investigators from the multijurisdictional drug unit since January
have identified 10 to 15 heroin users, ranging in age from 15 to 21,
in Kalamazoo County, Detective Lt. Jim Coleman said. Authorities say
the number of users could be as high as 20 or 30, based on
information from users and school-liaison officers in the Portage
Police Department, he said.

SWET became aware of possible heroin use among young adults, who are
injecting the drug intravenously, in late 2005 through Portage
police, Coleman said. Investigators found that teens from the Portage
area, the west side of Kalamazoo and other parts of the county were
going to the southeast and north sides of Kalamazoo to buy the drug
from street dealers.

"They tend to become addicted to it and make regular trips to
Kalamazoo to score their heroin and satisfy their appetites," Coleman said.

"These kids are buying heroin from anybody. Any stranger is bringing
them a hit of heroin, and they have no idea what they're putting into
their bodies."

Coleman said the concern about heroin use has grown among authorities
in southwestern Michigan, given the recent rise of a deadly hybrid
drug made by mixing heroin or cocaine with fentanyl, a synthetic form
of morphine. The mixture has been blamed for 48 deaths that occurred
in Wayne County over the last two weeks and more than 100 from
September through March.

Although investigators have yet to encounter fentanyl in Southwest
Michigan, they have said they expect it to make its way here.

Portage Deputy Police Chief Dan Mills said officers from his
department assigned to SWET and the Kalamazoo Valley Enforcement Team
are working with Portage school officials and school-liaison
officers. "We've been looking at it holistically, not just through an
enforcement effort, but an education-and-prevention effort," he said.

Portage Public Schools officials say they are working with police to
address drug issues and that school counselors are available to
students experiencing problems with drugs. The district also began a
drug-dog program this school year in which canines make monthly
visits to Portage Central and Portage Northern high schools.

"We've tried to be proactive and address the issues," spokesman Tom
Vance said. Since January, Coleman said, SWET has identified about
six heroin dealers in the Kalamazoo area and have cases pending
against four of them. Authorities also have arrested five people they
say are users, including Kyle C. Zulauf, an 18-year-old Portage man
who is a former student at Portage Central.

Zulauf, according to Coleman, was picked up in April by members of
SWET in Kalamazoo County and has a case pending on a charge of heroin
possession.

According to Kalamazoo County District Court records, Zulauf also has
been charged in a case in which it is alleged that a 15-year-old
Portage girl was induced to purchase heroin in April in Kalamazoo.
Zulauf waived a preliminary examination in that case Wednesday and
was bound over to Kalamazoo County Circuit Court for trial on charges
of inducing a minor to commit a felony and extortion, court officials
said. A second person charged in the case, Kendall E. Cheney, an
18-year-old Kalamazoo woman, was bound over for trial Wednesday
following a preliminary examination in Kalamazoo County District
Court. Cheney has been charged with inducing a minor to commit a
felony and with conspiracy to induce a minor to commit a felony.

During the hearing Wednesday, a 16-year-old girl testified that
Zulauf contacted her by phone April 12 and asked her to purchase $60
worth of heroin.

"I knew the pain they were going through," said the girl, who said
she herself is a former user and is currently in counseling.

"I said that I would. I wanted to help them," she testified. "They
wanted me to purchase a half-gram of heroin for $60."

The girl has been granted immunity from charges by the Kalamazoo
County Prosecuting Attorney's Office in exchange for her testimony.

She told assistant prosecuting attorney Mark Holsomback that Cheney
drove her and Zulauf to Kalamazoo, where Zulauf gave her money to buy
heroin. Near a gas station in downtown Kalamazoo, she said, Cheney
gave her the keys to the car, which she then drove to a house near
Norway Avenue and Princeton Street to buy the drugs.

She was approached by a Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety officer
when she arrived at the Princeton house. Cheney and Zulauf were later
arrested and charged.

Under questioning from Cheney's defense attorney, William McNeil, the
girl testified that Zulauf gave her the money for the drugs and was
the person who called her by phone and requested that she buy the heroin.

Despite that assertion, District Judge Carol Husum bound Cheney over
for trial, noting that Cheney had driven her car to Kalamazoo from
Portage with the girl and Zulauf for the heroin purchase.

"But for her part, there would be no case," Husum said of Cheney.
"They needed that car."

McNeil said after the hearing: "My client is not guilty, and we're
seeking a jury trial in the matter."