A DEA clandestine lab group prepares to close a fentanyl lab in New Jersey.  Special to Blogfinger.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid which is 100 times as potent as morphine and 50x more potent than heroin.  It originally was developed for medical purposes such as pain control, but in recent years it has been illegally mixed with heroin causing horrible side effects for unwary users, including death.  It can be taken in pill form,  as a nasal spray, or intravenously.

This is from the Asbury Park Press last December, “Heroin’s deadly cousin, the synthetic opioid fentanyl, figured in 417 fatal drug overdoses in New Jersey in 2015, nearly three times the number of  fentanyl-related deaths in the year before, according to new state figures.”  And the numbers continue to rise in this state.  Prince died of this drug.

Law enforcement groups as shown above are currently being utilized on a regular basis to conduct search warrants on fentanyl labs and heroin mill locations.

Multi-agency teams go after those illicit labs where fentanyl is manufactured, often in dangerous facilities where even the tiniest exposure can cause harm.  The equipment they wear is protective when used properly, and it is all disposable.  Take-downs of such labs are done with specialized chemists along to evaluate the environment,and the drugs are handled with great care .  The DEA has special equipment to incinerate the drugs after they are processed as evidence.

Because these labs produce drugs that can cause deaths, the drug dealers who manufacture and/or sell  fentanyl could be charged with murder.  Federal charges for such drug dealing carry very long sentences.

In Monmouth and Ocean Counties,  law enforcement is working  to break the backs of these fentanyl drug rings which are causing deaths  in the towns around us.

Report by Blogfinger.net.