Pubdate: Tue, 23 May 2006 Source: Chicago Tribune (IL) Copyright: 2006 Chicago Tribune Company Contact: http://www.chicagotribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82 Author: David Heinzmann and Jeff Coen, Tribune staff reporters Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) 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.