This piece is nothing more than a public relations pitch for the agency as well as limited hangout regarding where the evil poisons are coming from. Wait until you see where they point!
"DEA details path of deadly heroin blend to N.E.; Potent painkiller fentanyl believed added in Mexico" by Brian MacQuarrie | Globe Staff June 29, 2014
Really? It's not what local dealers are cutting it with?
Nearly all the heroin that has plagued New England with fatal overdoses in recent months is produced in Colombia and shipped to Mexico, where authorities believe drug cartels add the painkiller fentanyl to make a potent combination destined for the United States, the region’s top drug enforcement official said.
Yeah, right, sure. I thought Colombia was cocaine and marijuana, not opium.
They are pointing everywhere but, readers!
Ruthless drug organizations are including fentanyl, an opioid 30 times more powerful than heroin, to provide a new, extreme high for addicts who often are unaware the synthetic painkiller has been added, said Michael Ferguson, acting special agent in charge of the New England division of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
I wrote in the margin of my paper "Why kill your customers then?"
“They’re in business for one reason and one reason only. They’re in business to make money,” Ferguson said of the drug lords producing the concoction. “If you mix fentanyl in with the heroin, it’s there for one reason — to make it more powerful.”
In an interview with The Boston Globe last week, Ferguson provided an unusually detailed depiction of the journey that fentanyl-spiked heroin takes before landing in New England.
Meaning this all crap propaganda.
After being laced with fentanyl, the drug mix is smuggled across the border to traffickers in the United States, Ferguson said. Some of those traffickers drive more than 2,000 miles from New England to the US Southwest border and return directly with the drugs to cities such as Boston, Hartford, and Providence, he said.
Well, if you KNOW WHERE THEY ARE and HOW THEY ARE GETTING HERE, then GO GET 'EM!
Does anyone see the inherent contradictions here?
Related:
U.S. Government and Top Mexican Drug Cartel Exposed as Partners
The DEA Struck A Deal With Mexico's Most Notorious Drug Cartel
Oh, so the DEA itself was enabling and facilitating drug smuggling, 'eh?
Also see: US Government Brings Drug War to US Cities
Explains a lot, really. All agendas interlock.
Ferguson did not rule out that some fentanyl is added to heroin after it reaches the United States, but said the agency had uncovered little evidence of that.
Once in New England, heroin and its fentanyl-laced version are parceled out to dealers in smaller cities, in affluent suburbs, and in isolated towns. To reach those communities, the Colombian and Mexican drug organizations funnel heroin through contacts in “virtually every major city and town in New England,” Ferguson said.
Although drug users have become more aware of the dangers of fentanyl-laced heroin, many addicts desperate to ease the pain of withdrawal do not care about the consequences, substance-abuse workers say.
And for other drug users, the thrill of a fentanyl-propelled high is a lure in itself.
“They’re chasing the ultimate high, and if it happens to be heroin that is mixed with fentanyl, then so be it,” Ferguson said. “They’re willing to risk using that heroin with very serious consequences.”
It's a craving, and turns out I have some sympathy. Young kid who plays ball with us was an addict and he's a good kid and player, so....
Although New England has grappled with heroin abuse for decades, the region has been afflicted by a startling rise in overdose deaths since late last year....
More than 200 in Massachusetts, 91 in Rhode Island.
Anthony Pettigrew, a DEA special agent in Boston, said fentanyl was found frequently — but not invariably — in a recent collection of drug samples taken from the South Shore of Massachusetts....
The spread of heroin is fueled by its cheap cost compared with prescription opioids, which can serve as a gateway drug to heroin, DEA officials said.
Not the dreaded demon weed?
Another concern is that many users no longer regard injecting heroin as a shameful symbol of addiction. “We’re losing the grip on that stigma,” Ferguson said.
That is a stigma we should not lose. It's an evil drug.
John Merrigan, register of probate in Franklin County, said that tracing fentanyl production to Mexico seems plausible.
The technical expertise to mix heroin and fentanyl probably is more available outside his sparsely populated county in Western Massachusetts, Merrigan said.
I call it home.
And Franklin County’s proximity to Interstate 91, which helps link the drug markets of New York City, Hartford, and Springfield, puts the area in convenient reach of traffickers.
See: The Iron Pipeline Between Massachusetts and Vermont
I try to avoid it whenever possible.
Merrigan helps lead the hard-hit county’s fight....
Oh, I'm getting a headache.
The DEA is targeting both the top echelons of the drug network and lower-level traffickers who bring their products to New England. “We’ll try to eliminate the entire organization from the distributor on up,” Ferguson said.
Agents are working inside Colombia and Mexico. Closer to home, the DEA is partnering with state and local police in cities such as Springfield, Worcester, and New Bedford to dismantle the operations there.
“We’re dealing with some very sophisticated organizations” whose leaders have long, violent criminal histories, Ferguson said. “The streets are mean out there, and it’s about competition.”
The partnership has been effective, said State Police spokesman David Procopio.
“These joint efforts allow us to conduct larger-scale operations that target mid-level sources of narcotics, including those suspects who are point men for or conduits to international drug networks,” he said. “These operations also allow us to build wide-ranging cases that culminate in multidefendant sweeps.
“Working with the DEA also helps identify the routes through which drugs are smuggled into Massachusetts, which is a valuable source of intelligence.”
Listen to them!
In May, the DEA sponsored a New England-wide meeting on the heroin trade attended by 150 law enforcement officers from across the region. Intelligence was shared from the ground-level perspective of local police and from the bird’s-eye view of DEA headquarters, Ferguson said.
Ferguson declined to discuss DEA staffing or whether the agency needs more resources to combat the heroin trade. However, he did say that a key component of the fight is broad, heightened awareness.
“An issue like this is a public health issue,” he said. “It has to be addressed by education, treatment, and law enforcement as well.”
Drug War Redux!
Related: Obama's War on Medical Marijuana Comes to Massachusetts
Appareently, that is not a public health issue, it's a criminal justice issue.
--more--"
Sphincter.
Also see: New England Newborns Hooked on Heroin
So when is your home to be raided in the name of the drug war?
