AUTHORITIES SEARCH FOR SOURCE OF FATAL DRUG MIXTURE

DETROIT -- A lethal mixture of a pain control drug and heroin or
cocaine that officials say caused the deaths of at least 12 people in
Wayne County in two days has been under investigation for weeks.

The investigators, working with the Drug Enforcement Administration,
tested heroin samples seized in the Detroit area to determine whether
they were cut with fentanyl, Wayne County sheriff's Sgt. Larry Crider
said Saturday.

Four deaths were reported Thursday, followed by eight Friday. All the
victims apparently overdosed on a combination of fentanyl -- a
painkiller used by patients with terminal cancer -- and narcotics.

Wayne County issued a health advisory Friday about the danger.

"This was going on even before it became public," Crider told the
Detroit Free Press for a Sunday story. He would not say how close
detectives were to identifying the source or sources of the drugs.

Centers of Disease Control and Prevention officials, who plan to
travel Monday to Detroit to investigate, will add to the CDC's
database about such deaths, The Detroit News reported Sunday on its Web site.

Last month, a bad batch of drugs for sale on the streets of
Philadelphia and southern New Jersey killed at least nine heroin
users in two weeks. Tests done in one community showed that what was
sold as heroin was mostly fentanyl.

Fentanyl also has been harming Chicago-area addicts and has shown up
mixed with heroin in Cleveland and elsewhere this year.