Pubdate: Tue, 06 Jun 2006
Source: Belleville News-Democrat (IL)
Copyright: 2006 Belleville News-Democrat
Contact:  http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1185
Author: Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John)

RAIDED LAB MAY HAVE MADE LETHAL HEROIN

CHICAGO - U.S. drug czar John Walters said Monday that federal agents 
and the Mexican government, have closed a lab in Mexico that might be 
the main source of the powerful painkiller fentanyl that has killed 
heroin users in eight states.

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

Deaths from fentanyl-laced drugs have occurred in Illinois, Michigan, 
Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, Walters said.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman