The Department of Justice announced arrests in an international operation targeting fentanyl sales on the dark web that spanned the U.S., Europe and South America. Nearly 300 people were arrested.
Roberto Salazar II of San Diego was sentenced for importing fentanyl and for conspiracy to distribute heroin, meth, cocaine and fentanyl, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office.
In sweeping indictments, the Justice Department targeted two dozen operatives in the Chapitos network of the Sinaloa cartel. But many drug policy experts say this won't slow fentanyl deaths.
The U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy named a veterinary tranquilizer an “emerging threat” for humans when mixed with the opioid fentanyl, but pharmacists say they've been warning for years about irreversible overdose and extreme morbidity risks associated with xylazine.
Members of the Mexican cartel are facing several charges involving fentanyl trafficking, weapons and money laundering in New York, Illinois and Washington, D.C.
Multiple factors that make Atlanta a good distribution hub for fentanyl, including its location on an extensive interstate system, the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and wealth, according the DEA.
After a community is affected by an opioid overdose, an expanded program from Georgia’s Department of Public Health will send recovery and harm reduction advocates door-knocking in the neighborhood nearby.
At one Macon hotel, more than 375 emergency calls reporting a suspected drug overdose were made between December 2017 and May 2022, according to a lawsuit Bibb County filed against hotel owners in May 2022.
The veterinary tranquilizer has been linked to a growing number of overdose deaths across the country, especially in the Northeast. It's often combined with fentanyl, but can't be treated with Narcan.
The fentanyl crisis is hitting young people hard, and the highest death rates are in Native American communities. The Cherokee Nation is working to help young families recover.
As fentanyl deaths soar, political pressure is growing to stop Mexican cartels that smuggle the drug. Experts on drug trafficking say trying to lock down the Mexican border is an impossible goal.
Guilty or innocent, the drug-corruption trial in New York of high-ranking former Mexican government official, Genaro Garcia Luna, shows the limits of the U.S. to win its decades-long "war on drugs."