Last updated : December 23, 2024
Fentanyl, a powerful prescription pain medication, is responsible for three more overdoses this week.
Drug dealers and addicts throughout Cleveland have been lacing heroin with this dangerous narcotic to produce a stronger, more euphoric high.
Officials released a public warning last week after two men fatally overdosed on the city’s West Side. Preliminary drug testing indicated that fentanyl was present in their systems. It was also believed to have caused at least five more nonfatal overdoses.
Law enforcement is working diligently to track down the source of the fentanyl-laced heroin, which they said was being called “China White” on the street.
Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Deputies and Cleveland Police joined forces to arrest Ralph Torres, 65, and Rafael Rivera-Torres II, 43, Wednesday, and Angel David, 42, on Friday, who now face manslaughter charges and are being held on $500,000 bond, according to Cuyahoga County court records.
Fentanyl is a high-power prescription painkiller—80 times more potent than morphine—that is often used to treat chronic pain in cancer patients, or as an anesthetic during open-heart surgery. It first showed up in inner cities, and is directly responsible for the deaths of over 80 people along the East Cost and throughout the Midwest within recent months.
