FEDS CLOSE MEXICAN LAB POSSIBLY LINKED TO DEADLY HEROIN

Federal agents, working in cooperation with the Mexican government,
have closed down a lab in Mexico that might be the main source of the
powerful painkiller fentanyl that has killed heroin users in
Pennsylvania and seven other states, U.S. drug czar John Walters said Monday.

Walters, the director of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, said it's still not clear whether the

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Order Reprints fentanyl was mixed with heroin at the lab in
Mexico or after it entered the United States. Fentanyl-laced cocaine
also has turned up in some cities, he said.

He warned drug users that millions of deadly doses of fentanyl-laced
heroin might still be on the streets. The mixture has caused at least
100 confirmed deaths from Philadelphia to Chicago in recent months.
Fentanyl might also be coming from other sources, he said.

"There may be more than one source," Walters said. "We think this is
the principal source."

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is testing samples of
fentanyl seized in a May 28 raid of a suspected
fentanyl-manufacturing operation near the city of Guadalajara, but
does not yet have confirmation that the drug is linked to the U.S.
deaths, DEA spokesman Steve Robertson said.

"We hope to have a break in the case, but we're not sure this is it,"
Robertson said.

Five men, all Mexican citizens, were arrested in connection with the
May 28 raid, Robertson said.

Deaths from fentanyl-laced drugs have occurred in Illinois, Michigan,
Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, Walters said.