OFFICIALS CALL DRUG ARRESTS IN DETROIT A BREAKTHROUGH

DETROIT -- Two men were arrested in what law enforcement officials
are calling a breakthrough in their investigation into a lethal form
of heroin blamed for more than 100 deaths in the Detroit area.

Wayne County sheriff's deputies and federal drug agents said the two
suspects arrested Thursday sold a mix of heroin and the prescription
drug fentanyl from the Jeffries housing project north of downtown.
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Sheriff Warren C. Evans said investigators believe that one of those
arrested, a 45-year-old Detroit man, was "the key player who supplied
the Jeffries project," and that the other was a lower-level dealer
caught selling drugs to an undercover deputy.

"We have made a dent in what has been a crisis in this community," Evans said.

Fentanyl, a legally produced painkiller, is 80 times as strong as
morphine. Officials in cities including Chicago and Philadelphia have
reported more than 200 deaths from the combination. In the Detroit
area, the fentanyl-laced heroin has been sold on the street as
"Magic" or "A-1," officials said.

The two men, who were being held at the Wayne County Jail, had not
been formally charged when the arrests were announced. Their names
were not immediately released.

Officials said the man Evans described as a distributor was carrying
more than 80 packets of the heroin mix at the time of his arrest.