FEDERAL DRUG CZAR ANNOUNCES MAJOR DRUG BUST BLAMED FOR MIDWEST DEATHS

CHICAGO -- U.S. agents, working in cooperation with the Mexican
government, have closed down a lab in Mexico that might be the main
source of a powerful painkiller that has killed at least 100 heroin
users in eight states, the federal drug czar said Monday.

John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, said it's still not clear whether the painkiller,
fentanyl, was mixed with heroin at the lab in Mexico or after it
entered the United States.

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

Five people were arrested during the May bust, including one Walters
described as "the chemist." He referred specific questions to the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, which declined to provide details immediately.

Walters said that the dealers may have started using Fentanyl because
they were looking for a competitive advantage on the street, but that
inept mixing -- or cutting -- of the drug combination made it deadly.

He also warned that millions of deadly doses of the fentanyl-laced
heroin might still be on the streets. Fentanyl-laced cocaine had
turned up in some cities, as well, he said.

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