POLICE PLAN FENTANYL FIGHT

Joint Effort Targets Mexican Suppliers

At the end of a two-day conference on the painkiller fentanyl, police
and federal drug investigators said they are better informed about
the growing crisis and are aggressively working to cut off the
Mexican supply of the drug, which has tainted the U.S. heroin market
and killed hundreds of people.

Chicago police and Drug Enforcement Administration officials held the
summit in the DEA's office here Wednesday and Thursday in order to
bring together investigators, scientists and public health officials
working on the problem around the country.

Officials are calling the emerging fentanyl problem a crisis that has
become larger than they anticipated, and they felt a need to raise
awareness and understanding, as well as coordinate their work
pursuing the traffickers pushing the drug to heroin users.

"We fully intend to engage in a coordinated effort to identify people
who are engaged in manufacturing fentanyl illegally and
clandestinely, and we're going to aggressively pursue them," said Tim
Ogden, associate special agent in charge of the DEA's Chicago field office.

Police and DEA agents attended from Detroit, Newark, Philadelphia,
St. Louis, San Diego and Los Angeles and several other cities. More
than 125 people attended the conference, and organizers said the
turnout demonstrates the urgency of the problem.

"Law enforcement officials talk on a regular basis, but this
conference has added another dimension to the communication process,"
Chicago Police Supt. Philip Cline said. "We have developed a network
of law enforcement agencies, health officials, EMS agencies, and
chemists to share knowledge and information when a crisis of crime
hits, like it has here."

Of the 64 people who have died in fentanyl-related overdoses in Cook
County over the last year, 20 had pure fentanyl in their bodies, said
Frank Limon, chief of the Chicago Police Department's organized crime
division. The others had fentanyl mixed with heroin or other drugs.

In addition to chasing the drug traffickers, leaders said, they plan
to push a public awareness campaign that would include outreach to
drug prevention professionals.

"We're going to collaborate in a similar event with the treatment and
prevention people. We're very concerned about this threat, and we're
actively and aggressively pursuing it," Ogden said.

In Chicago, police have arrested more than 100 street-level drug
dealers in hopes to develop information about the wholesale
suppliers. Investigators are also trying to determine whether the
drug is being produced by more than one lab in Mexico. Federal
investigators are currently testing seized samples of fentanyl to see
whether they were produced at a Mexican lab that Mexican and U.S.
investigators shut down recently.