DEADLY DRUG EMERGES IN CITY

Alone Or With Heroin, Fentanyl Has Killed Hundreds

A powerful drug that when mixed with heroin has been traced to
hundreds of deaths nationwide has surfaced in Milwaukee, authorities
said Thursday.Advertisement

Last week, Milwaukee vice detectives seized 6.5 grams of pure
fentanyl - a legally produced synthetic painkiller that is 80 times
stronger than morphine - in a bust on the city's north side, said
Lt. Robert Stelter. They thought they were getting heroin and were
surprised to learn it was fentanyl, presumably sold to be added to
heroin, he said.

Fentanyl has surfaced in Chicago, Detroit and other cities with
deadly results. The drug has been traced to the deaths of 200 people
in the United States and at least three in Wisconsin. So far, the
drug has not been directly tied to any deaths in Milwaukee, but on
Thursday an official in the Racine County medical examiner's office
said at least two deaths there have been linked to fentanyl in 2006.

Ryan Willhard, a 21-year-old former Cedarburg resident, died of an
overdose June 18 in an apartment in Grand Chute, in Outagamie
County. His father, John Willhard, said authorities told him that
his son died of a fentanyl overdose. Willhard said his son had
been heroin free for eight months but began using again. He said
his son probably tried to buy heroin again and was instead sold fentanyl.

Fentanyl is so powerful it can cause an overdose through absorption
through the skin, prompting a warning to law enforcement officers to
be careful when handling the drug, Stelter said.

This was Milwaukee's first seizure of the drug and the largest in
the state, said David Spakowicz, state special agent in charge of a
heroin task force here. He estimated the seizure was worth $25,000.

[Name redacted], 29, who gave police a Chicago address but later
listed a Milwaukee address, has been charged in the north side bust
with manufacture and delivery of a designer drug, according to
online court records. He was released after posting $750 bail on
Tuesday, according to jail officials.

Stelter said the amount of fentanyl seized was enough to cut into
thousands of packets of heroin, which can be as small as a tenth of an ounce.

"We are really worried now we are seeing this," Stelter said. "The
problem is it is so potent, and they are not pharmacists. If they
mix it wrong, you die."

Tom Kertscher of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.