Fentanyl

Five funerals in six weeks - all heroin overdoses linked to a city that usually has that many in a single year. Police say a "bad batch" of heroin has been extracting a deadly toll on Gloucester City, a tight-knit Camden County riverfront community. The victims were mostly young, in their 20s and 30s. They were residents, or people with long ties to the community, who overdosed in the city or nearby. "It's just a horrible problem right now," said Police Chief George Berglund, an officer for 23 years.

Authorities have taken down a major supplier of heroin laced with the painkiller fentanyl, a potentially lethal mixture responsible for as many as 100 deaths across the Philadelphia region this year. Police and federal agents discovered 300 grams of fentanyl and nearly a kilogram of heroin in a heroin-processing "mill" in the basement of a Pennsauken house during the summer, authorities said. The 300 grams would have been enough to spike 40,000 doses of heroin, typically sold for $10 a bag. "That represents half the population of Camden that could have gotten a bag of fentanyl," said Gerard P. McAleer, the Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in charge for New Jersey.

Neighbors saw the guy bolting from the back of a graffiti-stained, abandoned house as he shouted the word that soon would ring out on drug corners across the country. "Overdose. " Mercedes Perez, who lives a few doors down on this North Camden block, went to investigate. In a junk-strewn lot teeming with flies and covered in broken glass, she found Samantha Bender, a young suburban mother, lying dead on her back, surrounded by empty blue bags of heroin. "She was a pretty girl.

A drug task force has arrested three people suspected of distributing a deadly combination of heroin and a powerful painkiller, the FBI said yesterday. U.S. Magistrate Jacob Hart ordered Louis "Bardo" Morales, Osvaldo "Valdi" Seda and Adam J. "Kekito" Torres-Ojeda held on charges of possessing and distributing heroin. Assisted by Delaware County investigators and Chester police officers, the task force seized what agents called "a large quantity" of heroin in predawn raids Wednesday at Morales' home in the 900 block of Walnut Street and at Torres-Ojeda's home in 600 block of W. 9th Street, both in Chester.

There's a new drug out on the streets. It's 100 times more powerful than heroin. And just a teeny amount - smaller than a grain of salt or the tip of a pin - can kill. Instantly. The drug, a heroin synthetic called fentanyl, has caused at least 11 overdose deaths in Philadelphia in the last month, health and law enforcement officials said yesterday. And it is suspected in at least one other drug- related death, officials said. The drug is so swiftly powerful that "it is probably one of the most dangerous drugs we in law enforcement have ever dealt with," said Sam Billbrough, who heads the Philadelphia office of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

In August, a rescue crew in Wichita, Kan., answered a 911 emergency call. A man named Joseph Martier had collapsed inside a dingy storage building at an isolated industrial park just outside town. Martier was unconscious from a drug overdose, but he recovered later at a Wichita hospital. It appeared to be just another drug-abuse episode - except for the drug. It was fentanyl, a lethal "designer drug" that can be hundreds of times more potent than heroin. The near-death of Martier, 42, a Pittsburgh businessman now being held on drug charges, helped solve a lethal mystery that had vexed federal drug agents for a year.

A federal drug investigation into a synthetic heroin-like drug that killed 21 Philadelphia people last year has netted its first local suspect. A 73-year-old West Philadelphia man was arraigned yesterday for the illegal distribution of fentanyl, the U.S. attorney's office in Philadelphia said. Stewart Carson, of Belmar Terrace, was jailed pending a bail hearing on Thursday, according to assistant U.S. Attorney Roland B. Jarvis. Jarvis said Carson was indicted Friday by a grand jury and arrested yesterday.

Despite wide publicity over a cluster of deaths two months ago, the synthetic drug fentanyl continues to kill heroin users in South and West Philadelphia. City health officials said yesterday that the drug, nicknamed "China White," has claimed 10 more lives since mid-September. Since late August, 21 people have died in Philadelphia after injecting the powerful heroin substitute, Health Commissioner Robert K. Ross said yesterday in a public health advisory. "Even the first-time drug user risks ingesting a fatal substance," Ross said.

ADREXEL HILL medical technician's drinking and drug problem were one and the same, according to Upper Darby police, who arrested the man Saturday for allegedly stealing morphine and fentanyl syringes from his employer that he then emptied and drank as painkiller cocktails. Ronald Ferrell, 35, began working for STAT Medical Transport of Drexel Hill in September, and it took his employer just three months to notice that Ferrell's patients seemed to be speeding through morphine and fentanyl, police said.

A powerful designer drug used as a heroin substitute was present in the bodies of at least three of 13 people who have died of drug overdoses in Eastern Pennsylvania recently, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration said yesterday. Two other overdose victims probably had an illegal chemical clone of the potent - and legal - tranquilizer fentanyl in their systems, the DEA said, but lab tests were not performed in those cases. Tests on the remaining eight overdose victims showed no traces of fentanyl clones, the DEA said.

ADREXEL HILL medical technician's drinking and drug problem were one and the same, according to Upper Darby police, who arrested the man Saturday for allegedly stealing morphine and fentanyl syringes from his employer that he then emptied and drank as painkiller cocktails. Ronald Ferrell, 35, began working for STAT Medical Transport of Drexel Hill in September, and it took his employer just three months to notice that Ferrell's patients seemed to be speeding through morphine and fentanyl, police said.

A new brand of heroin called "Hellfire" led to at least 11 overdose cases in Camden during the weekend. Though no one died, law enforcement officials warned people to avoid this "potentially lethal" batch, which is likely to be laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opiate used on cancer patients. "Our concern is we don't have a repeat of 2006," when 60 overdose deaths occurred in five months in South Jersey, Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson said. There were also more than 100 nonfatal overdoses during that period, most of them related to fentanyl.

A new brand of heroin called "Hellfire" has led to at least 11 overdose cases in Camden City this weekend. Though no one has died, law enforcement officials are warning people to avoid this "potentially lethal" batch, which is likely to be laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opiate used on cancer patients. "Our concern is we don't have a repeat of 2006," when during a five-month period there were 60 overdose deaths in the South Jersey region, said Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson.

A new brand of heroin called "Hellfire" has led to almost a dozen overdose cases in Camden City this weekend. Though no one has died, law enforcement officials are warning people to avoid this "potentially lethal" batch, which is likely to be laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opiate used on cancer patients. "Our concern is we don't have a repeat of 2006," when during a five-month period there were 60 overdose deaths in the South Jersey region, said Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson.

Five funerals in six weeks - all heroin overdoses linked to a city that usually has that many in a single year. Police say a "bad batch" of heroin has been extracting a deadly toll on Gloucester City, a tight-knit Camden County riverfront community. The victims were mostly young, in their 20s and 30s. They were residents, or people with long ties to the community, who overdosed in the city or nearby. "It's just a horrible problem right now," said Police Chief George Berglund, an officer for 23 years.

The vacant lot across from Sue Roman's Kensington home is an addict's asylum: Far from busier city streets, the sprawling swath along Ormes Street near Indiana Avenue offers plenty of towering weeds and debris to shield even the least discreet of drug users. Overdose deaths are so common that discovering corpses has become a sort of grim game. "I found the last one," said Dashawna Gasper, 17, chatting with neighbors near the lot one recent afternoon. "White girl, blonde. Still had the needle in her hand.

A Pennsauken man was sentenced to six years in federal prison yesterday for his role in a drug-distribution ring that laced heroin with a lethal painkiller before selling it to dealers and addicts. Jaime Castellar, 32, also was ordered to serve five years of probation after he is released. Castellar was one of several people who ran a heroin mill in the basement of a rented house in Pennsauken in 2005 and 2006. Authorities said the heroin processed there was spiked with fentanyl, a powerful painkiller that intensifies the effects of the heroin and can lead to fatal overdoses.

EVERY DAY, some junkie dies from a heroin overdose. This drug is considered the ultimate analgesic - overdose victims don't cry out in pain before their lights go out. A few years ago, the scourge of a deadly heroin/fentanyl mix fueled an OD epidemic across the nation. The blend's lethal effectiveness greatly enhanced its reputation on the streets, increasing the addicts' desire for it. Lately, there's been a focus on whether convicts feel pain during lethal injection. If a court ordered an execution using heroin/fentanyl, the result would be a death penalty quite the opposite of the "cruel and unusual" punishment our Constitution says can't be inflicted on the condemned.

A Pennsauken man pleaded guilty in federal court in Camden yesterday to conspiring to distribute more than 100 grams of heroin. Jaime Castellar, 31, admitted he rented a house where heroin was packaged in bulk amounts for resale to other suppliers, and small bags for street sales in Camden, said Greg Reinert, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. Authorities said Castellar laced his heroin with the powerful painkiller fentanyl to boost its power. Investigators came upon what they called a heroin "mill" on July 21 after a naked man ran from the house yelling to neighbors for help.

Authorities have taken down a major supplier of heroin laced with the painkiller fentanyl, a potentially lethal mixture responsible for as many as 100 deaths across the Philadelphia region this year. Police and federal agents discovered 300 grams of fentanyl and nearly a kilogram of heroin in a heroin-processing "mill" in the basement of a Pennsauken house during the summer, authorities said. The 300 grams would have been enough to spike 40,000 doses of heroin, typically sold for $10 a bag. "That represents half the population of Camden that could have gotten a bag of fentanyl," said Gerard P. McAleer, the Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in charge for New Jersey.