County Prosecutor Issues Warning on Threat of Heroin Mixed With Fentanyl

COURT HOUSE- Cape May County Prosecutor Robert L. Taylor is issuing a warning about the recent threat of heroin that is being mixed with a deadly cutting agent known as Fentanyl.
From Jan. 1, 2013 to date, the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office and local police departments have responded to and investigated 99 drug related overdoses of which, 24 have been fatal. Prosecutor Taylor added, that during the investigation of a number of these drug related overdoses, drug paraphernalia in the form of empty wax paper folds usually marked with some type of identifying stamp on the bag and other related paraphernalia such as syringes, spoons and other materials used to prepare the heroin for ingestion into the body have been located at the scene. Most recently during a drug related investigation in Wildwood, an amount of heroin was seized and tested by the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office Forensic Laboratory and tested positive for a deadly combination of heroin and fentanyl.
Fentanyl is an extremely powerful prescription narcotic used to relieve severe or chronic pain, commonly used for cancer patients and is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Fentanyl is distributed medically as a skin patch, lozenge, pills, shots, a film that dissolves in your mouth, or intravenously. An unregulated ingestion of fentanyl in your system, could lead to serious problems and most often death.
Prosecutor Taylor further stated that all of these heroin bags located and collected as evidence from the scene of many of these drug related overdoses, coupled with bags of heroin and other controlled dangerous substances seized during drug investigations are submitted to the Cape May County Forensic Laboratory for appropriate testing. By having a forensic laboratory within the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office, the results required to determine the identification of a substance in a short period of time is able to be accomplished and this helps identifying a suspect and or potential deadly substance, which can be the direct cause of many of these overdoses.
Prosecutor Taylor further advised that although his offices Forensic Laboratory examines controlled dangerous substance seized within Cape May County, they do not have the man power to do testing on each and every substance submitted to determine purity levels. Prosecutor Taylor did state that DEA statistics show recent purity levels of heroin in southern New Jersey have been as high as 63 percent with a national average of 25 percent.
Prosecutor Taylor assures the community that Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office Gangs, Guns and Narcotics Task Force is working vigorously hand in hand with each of the local police departments in the county to find the source or sources of these heroin distributors and distributors of any illegal substances in an attempt to help prevent any further tragedies from these drug related overdoes. Prosecutor Taylor urges families to educate their children as to the dangers of heroin and other illegal drugs and to continue to report any information regarding illegal drug activity and or any criminal activity within the community and this information can be reported anonymously through the Cape May County Sheriffs Tip Line at cmcsheriff.net and click on anonymous tip, or through the Cape May County Crime Stoppers at 609-465-2800 or 877-465-2801, Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office at 609-465-1168.