TAINTED DRUGS GOING NATIONWIDE

As Chicago police continue investigating heroin dealers lacing their
drugs with the deadly painkiller Fentanyl, federal officials are
trying to determine whether the outbreak of the drug is part of an
emerging national problem.

Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent two
investigators to Detroit at the request of Michigan health officials
to look into the more than 100 Fentanyl-related deaths there since
last fall, said CDC spokeswoman Bernadette Burden. It is the first
time the CDC has been called to investigate Fentanyl use, Burden said.

"This is new territory," she said.

In addition to Chicago and Detroit, New Jersey and Philadelphia also
have had a series of fatal overdoses in recent weeks. The U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration has begun testing samples in controlled
purchases from targeted areas here and in other hot spots to
determine if they can be linked to a common source, officials said.

"Samples are being tested to see if we can determine if it's
pharmaceutical grade or from a clandestine laboratory," said Special
Agent Christopher Hoyt of the DEA in Chicago.

"Whenever we're coming across it, it's being tested."

Fentanyl is a prescription drug often used in anesthesia and pain management.

Investigators say the drug, which can be 100 times stronger than
heroin, probably comes from multiple sources.

Some of the drug that ends up peddled on the street is stolen from
pharmaceutical supply chains. Police are still investigating a May 1
theft of Fentanyl from Resurrection Hospital on the Northwest Side.

But much of the drug is believed to come from illegal labs operated
by traffickers.

"We know it comes up from the Mexican border," said Frank Limon,
chief of the department's organized crime division. But "it's kind of
mixed. We've got the lab-based stuff, and we have the legitimate
stuff that is prescribed for someone and is sitting in a cabinet
somewhere" when it is stolen.

Two weeks ago Chicago police raided a house on the West Side looking
for Fentanyl after several people overdosed in the area earlier in the day.

A gun and ammunition were recovered at the house in the 1000 block of
North Iowa Street, but the real target of the raid--Sidney Peterson
and a stash of Fentanyl-laced heroin--were not there, police and
prosecutors said.

Peterson was arrested with the tainted heroin three days later,
however, when officers spotted him driving nearby, prosecutors said.

The bust was part of a broad investigation that has included several
arrests and seizures since the latest outbreak in Chicago last month.

"We're trying to leverage anybody in custody" to give up information
about the Fentanyl supply, Limon said.

Since April 2005 there have been 42 Fentanyl-related fatal overdoses
in Cook County, with 30 in Chicago, police said.

The largest outbreak this year occurred between April 13 and April
19, mostly on the South Side. Police have submitted 43 samples of
heroin for forensic testing from that investigation, and so far, four
samples tested positive for Fentanyl, Limon said. He said 19 samples
are still being evaluated.

The problem in Chicago is cyclical, said Hoyt. Investigators believe
that drug dealers occasionally introduce the drug into their heroin
supply in order to spark new demand among heavy drug users looking
for more potent heroin, police said.

"The only problem is it's killing more of their customers," Hoyt said.