Fentanyl 101 - Narcotics Officer Jermy Prescott
Fentanyl 101 – Narcotics Officer Jermy Prescott
The DEA has called it the most dangerous drug our country has ever faced. FWPD Narcotics Officer, Jeremy Prescott details everything you need and didn’t want to know about Fentanyl. From its source, to its forms, to our schools, to the daily overdoses, to the vastness of the problem facing our country. This one will terrify you.
Resources:
Crime Stoppers at: 817-469-TIPS (8477) or WWW.469TIPS.COM
Fighting Fentanyl: https://www.hhs.texas.gov/services/mental-health-substance-use/mental-health-substance-use-resources/fighting-fentanyl
Episode Transcription:
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roxo media house
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welcome back to fortitude everyone JW Wilson I’m here with a very special guest narcotics officer Jeremy Prescott
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thank you for being here today Jeremy we appreciate your time the reason Jeremy’s here to talk about or he’s only he’s on
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the show today to talk about a very hot topic something that scares a lot of us fit in all uh the DEA is called fentanyl
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the deadliest drug uh our country’s ever seen uh it’s a synthetic opioid drug I was in
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a painkiller it’s a prescription for those who get it legally it was introduced to the medical practice in
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the 1960s as an intravenous analgesic uh 100 times more more potent than morphine
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50 times more potent than heroin it’s a really really bad thing but a happy I’m
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grateful for your time today Jeremy we’re here to learn about fentanyl so again thank you for being here and from
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from your experience tell us about this terrible thing called fentanyl sure um so from my experience it kind of came
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onto the scene a few years ago just kind of quietly showed up and then we saw more and more of it it
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kind of exploded in our faces um and we weren’t sure what was going on
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with it where it was coming from um and as were the consumers uh they thought they were getting legitimate
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prescription drugs that turned out to be counterfeit drugs laced with or laced
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but made with fentanyl and it started wreaking havoc on us so we kind of had
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to turn around and figure out what was going on and how to pursue it how to chase it and use our you know our
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traditional means of Narcotics investigations and try to gear it towards this new threat and this new
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problem for those who aren’t super familiar with it like I said it’s a it’s
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a painkiller of sorts an opioid painkiller absolutely yeah why why would people want this outside of the general
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like surgery or if they’re in great deal of pain from a from a doctor but why would somebody want fentanyl so I don’t
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think you the majority of people that are getting it or seeking fentanyl out majority of them are getting it uh
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disguised as something else okay you have to keep in mind the prescription issue to this the stuff that’s issued in
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the prescription form the stuff used in the hospital is dosed in micrograms so you’re talking very finite amounts of
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fentanyl being entered into a person’s system well when you’re getting this stuff in the streets you’re getting an
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upwards of 1.5 you know a milligram up to five milligrams per pill with a
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deadly dose of fentanyl be in it like two and a half milligrams which is the equivalent of I saw five grains of salt
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five grains of salt right unbelievable absolutely so you’re talking about a very very fine line between what could
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be considered uh non-fatal and fatal and that’s kind of where the problem arises
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before we get to the source of this and how it’s entering our our culture uh the
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FDA has approved this this drug for pain like we talked about is the FDA are they
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in a process to stop allowing it to be approved is it is it still going to remain as a painkiller regardless of the
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the problem it’s causing yeah I I don’t know that I don’t imagine that they would go down that route to unapprove it
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um but I can’t speak on that surely okay well let’s start from the from the the
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ground floor where is fentanyl coming from so the majority of the fentanyl we’re seeing is coming from China uh
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either shipped as the final powder product or as precursor chemicals it’s being shipped to Mexico
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and then in Mexico it’s being either processed in its powder form or
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turned into the powder form uh in labs in Mexico into these like oxycodone into
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the oxycodonex things like that X and even just raw powder why are the why are people mixing it with a not called
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oxycodone what what is what is the benefit to the dealer the manufacturer or the why is it being involved in other
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drugs so as far as with the oxycodone it’s not being mixed with regular oxycodone it’s just being pressed to
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make it look like an oxycodone pill okay an oxycodone pill is it was a very
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popularly abused medication now it’s really hard to find because all the
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control measures that are in place but the heroin addicts and and people that were addicted to heroin that wanted
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something else but often used the Oxys right um and then when that once that kind of
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got shut down there was kind of the Void in there and they saw this void and they figured they could start pushing these
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pills uh in the U.S because of the the the opioid epidemic here so now we have
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we have all these people that are seeking these pills the painkillers so somebody decided this is a good way we
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can fill that void with the counterfeit pills is it cheaper to manufacture than an oxycodone so it’s a is it a it’s a
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price thing it’s it’s very cheap it’s very cheap for them to manufacture these pills and it’s very profitable guessing
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the drug cartels in Mexico are behind the majority of this correct
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um these chemicals that go into it that make it so potent we’ve talked about a hundred times more potent than morphine
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and 50 times more than heroin that’s staggering but what are the chemicals involved are you familiar with this what
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makes it so potent I mean as far as I mean the fentanyl is what makes it potent that’s the active ingredient that’s the active ingredient the rest of
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what’s going to be in the pill is going to be acetaminophen or some kind of binder which is what holds everything
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together or and some type of coloring agent to get it to that blue color but other than that it’s it’s a
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it’s going to be Fentanyl and it’s going probably by by Road up through the
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border to all over the country is that typically how you find it you find it it’s going to people that deal it’s
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let’s let’s stay here in Dallas Fort Worth for the present conversation but it’s arriving in these packages like you
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said whether it’s oxycodone powder pills all the forms that it shows up and then
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it’s being sold to people uh by purpose by accident I mean there’s an attempt to
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sell it obviously but these people are uh are the people that are buying this stuff are they they’re not always
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wanting fentanyl or the warning in at all is there a desire for the drug called fentanyl so I’ve seen in some cases the desire for the fentanyl in
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some cases we see that people know that it’s Fentanyl and they just disregard it because of their addiction right and
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then we’ve seen people that just get it not knowing what’s in it it’s not sold as fentanyl it’s not labeled as fentanyl
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it’s not packages Fentanyl um it’s often sold by you know whatever the Common Street name is uh a lot of
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times in the Oxycodone pills it’s perks which you start short for percocets as blues m30s 30s uh those are the you know
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the markings on the pill and that’s kind of what people call them perks is one of the real common names that that it’s
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asked for by uh by now I would think that most people know that they’re not legitimate I’m just sure there’s still
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people out there that don’t know especially people that are kind of new to the the drug world may not know but
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um most people know that they’re not getting legitimate pills so the folks that are making their making up in the
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news or in the hospitals these are generally people buying something then fentanyls obviously there it’s it’s
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taking them down so it’s a it’s an it’s an accidental overdose it’s not again no
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one tends to overdose typically but these are excellent overdoses because fentanyl is being introduced into something they normally would get high
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off of correct uh correct and and and yeah the terminology accidental overdose
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is kind of uh in some cases uh there’s there’s actually there’s legislation that was just passed recently
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um that I believe it’s in the Senate now in Texas to change it where some of these can be labeled as poisonings
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because the person that’s taking it doesn’t know what they’re ingesting right so you’re you’re handing me
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something that I don’t know that I ingest so now it’s not an external overdose it’s a poisoning right and if
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that All Passes then those could actually be investigated as murder cases when you encounter someone on on
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fentanyl or what is what does a typical scene look like is there a general sense of what you this this world looks like
8:03
under fentanyl uh so I mean it depends on what stage they’re at
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um how they’re using it how they’re how much they’re using but it it’s a it will
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kind of like a depressant so it’s going to kind of bring them down um as far as what you’re going to see
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um uh they’re gonna doze off a lot of dozing off um hard to stay awake
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um and that’s what you’re going to observe now if it’s something if it’s a fatal overdose I mean within minutes they’re
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going to be gone they’re going to be unconscious on the floor stop breathing um so yeah I mean it acts very very
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close Narcan is that the obvious solution to an overdose with this particular drug absolutely administering
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or Narcan um as soon as possible to reverse the effects of the the opioid or block the
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effects of the opioid is tremendous in helping save people that are overdosing
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you mentioned a few of the symptoms what what is fentanyl what does it do to people that gives it a I mean it’s
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obviously it’s not a desired effect but it gives them some sort of high what is fentanyl doing to people so I guess it’s
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just a euphoric High I don’t I don’t uh I don’t know the exact it’s it’s uh I
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want to say different for everybody but um I don’t know the exact way that makes them feel but a lot of
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people that are addicted to it need it to feel normal like if they don’t get that high they’re going to get dope sick
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and and it’s going to be a bad day for them I see some of these side effects and you alluded to a few of them
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drowsiness nausea confusion constipation sedation tolerance addiction respiratory
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depression arresting and Consciousness so it’s got all the things I mean I uh
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okay now we’ve kind of covered what it’s doing to people what what are what are
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happening what’s happening in the with you guys as far as trying to stop this problem because obviously it hit the scene like you said quickly and it’s
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gonna become a massive problem absolutely and you agree with that absolutely what is being done or
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attempting to being done to stop it because it’s it’s everywhere now right it is everywhere
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um I can tell you that uh just here I can only speak to what we’re doing
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um but uh we’ve put together teams that focus on chasing the fentanyl we put together teams uh that uh will actually
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you know as long as the notification process works like it should we’ll we will respond to the overdoses
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um so if we get an overdose we get the response we can actually go up show up on scene assess the situation interview
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people uh collect evidence uh you know download phones if that’s possible and
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actually Target the person that’s selling the bill that that killed the person or caused the person to to uh
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overdose so that’s something that we’ve had some success with um and it’s relatively A New Concept
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something that we’re we’re really pushing through and and uh trying to figure it out as we go have you guys had
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any successes as far as seizures and busts and things of that nature yes absolutely we’ve uh we’ve had some
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successes and a lot of these cases if we can Will partner with uh you know our
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federal agencies Federal partners and try to take these cases federally just because the statutes federally may have
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a little bit more teeth in them um and we’ve had some success uh
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yeah absolutely have had some success Prosecuting these cases especially on the federal side so there are some
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federal uh Aid behind you guys from to do this more often and keep these people these bad guys behind bars and and a lot
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of the the three-letter agencies they’ve made it there they’ve made this their priority as well
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um this is Enemy Number One in their in their eyes you know they’re chasing they’re chasing the Fentanyl and
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Fentanyl Distributors as well could I touch on that one more time uh everybody knows you know methamphetamine cocaine
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the the really hard stuff that your heroin uh stuff but why is why is
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fentanyl surpassed all those so quickly but again we’ve talked about it’s being mixed in and right unbeknownst to a lot
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of people but why is it jumped on the scene in such force uh because it’s cheap it’s cheap and it takes such small
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amounts to be potent so you could take uh for example we had an overdose recently where the person that died
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thought that they were um ingesting cocaine um but it wasn’t it was it may have been
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some cocaine but it was cocaine with fentanyl in it and so what you can do is you can take a kilo of cocaine you can
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break that up add other cutting agents to it which are you know not active ingredients and then you can
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sprinkle a little fentanyl over it and now you taking you know a kilo of cocaine and turn it into multiple kilos
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of cocaine gotcha um without losing the potency of it because if you’re selling weak product you’re
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not going to have customers coming back to you sure if you’re selling potent stuff that’s what they’re going to be asking
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for I read I read two days ago uh from the date of this air of this recording that
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Dallas had had 27 suspected fentanyl overdoses on one day I think it was it
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was maybe a earlier this week so Wednesday let’s call it they report 27 suspect overdoses
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of fentanyl in one day I mean so I’m just trying to highlight that this is a problem everybody knows it’s a problem
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how often are you dealing with you’re dealing with on a daily basis are you seeing overdoses every day or is it is it become a a norm to deal with this
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every day so it has become a norm and we don’t necessarily get enough notification on a death on a daily basis
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doesn’t mean it’s not happening right um because in a lot of the cases the the
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person overdoses um goes into cardiac arrest whatever the case is and they’re transported to the
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hospital and they may die at the hospital and those deaths and those overdoses may
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not get reported to us sometimes they do sometimes they don’t so in those cases
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the only way we hear about it is a family member you know of the loved one who reaches out and
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says hey nothing you know my son died my daughter died from this and uh you know nothing’s being done well it’s not
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because we don’t know about it and um uh so we may get some of those but the majority of those just go uh just kind
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of go and carry their course they died at the hospital it was an over drug overdose and that’s where it is
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um so I I can’t say it’s not happening on a daily basis
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um but it does happen uh quite frequently and there’s some nights where we’re going from call to call to call
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um you know very long days long nights where we’ll have multiple in a day so we
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haven’t had a day like that uh what you reported for Dallas right we haven’t had a day like that but we’ve had some
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pretty long days you mentioned pills and some of the powders how how what are other ways that fentanyl is being
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consumed so the way it’s even in the pill form uh it’s consumed in multiple ways it’s uh it’s taken orally
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um which is what you’d suspect but it’s also crushed up and snorted and then it’s also smoked so um
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for a key for some parents to look for a little cut straws
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um like a McDonald’s straw that’s cut into a little piece or like a a piece of a a pin straw you know like a hollowed
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out pen right uh with maybe some uh burnt looking like smoke on the end of
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it and then foil because what they’ll do is they’ll take a piece of foil put the pill in the middle of it or a piece of
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the pillow in the middle of it they’ll light it on fire it kind of melts the pill and then they take the straw and
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they suck the fumes off of it and it’s one of the faster ways to get the high
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introduced to the system um so and and it’s a
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so yeah if you see little balls of oil little things of foil and it has kind of a burnt residue in it right then you’re
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you’re probably dealing with somebody that has a pretty decent addiction problem they don’t people don’t start off smoking pills right
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um but they get there pretty quick and and some of these some of these locations that we watch so
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we’re building cases on we can see customers go in come out get in their car and they can’t even get out of the
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parking lot of where they bought it from before they start smoking their pills so it’s it’s a
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um is there uh is there a part of Fort Worth it’s it’s more it’s more prevalent is it North side where typically I’ve
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I’ve read years years and years years of reading about stuff like this I think North Side tends to be the the center
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point of drug activity in this in this city is that still the case or is it is it you’re finding it everywhere even the
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affluent communities Now everywhere it’s everywhere it’s it it’s all over Fort Worth the surrounding jurisdictions the
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surrounding cities we partner and work with a lot of the other agencies in the area uh on these cases so it’s it’s
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everywhere the age of folks that are generally doing this is there any is it young children is it older people does
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it matter anymore uh so it really doesn’t matter anymore I think statistically speaking on a national level age 18 to 45 this is the leading
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cause of death for 18 to 45 year olds um but I we’ve I worked overdose to
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Deaths of 15 year olds I’ve worked over those deaths of 56 year olds so it runs
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kind of the gamut of age um there’s not one real target age I guess yeah not to get too personal but
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what what is it I mean this is a very tough question to ask somebody because I know the answer but how do you process a
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15 year old overdose yeah it’s tough I have kids of my own so it’s tough It’s like I told my wife I said I’m tired of
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talking to parents and dead kids seriously so like getting this word out is like absolutely I saw that in in 2021
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this is a stat from off the CDC I believe or might be in the DEA website
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in this follows up with the point you just made 77 percent of all teen overdose deaths uh involved Fentanyl
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uh that was about 70 000 kids in this country uh and that’s from the net
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season the national Safety Council which is a 26 increase over 2020 so we’re now
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in year 2023 I don’t know if I couldn’t find data on 2022 but I can only imagine
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it’s considerably higher than 2021 so right do you know any of the stats so I
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don’t I don’t have the stats and uh part I think part of the reason that it takes so long to get the stats in is
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um just for example in Tarrant County our medical examiner’s office it may take them three or four months to
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complete uh the toxicology reports and that go along with the autopsy report just because of the volume and uh and
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places are still you wouldn’t think this but places are still backed up because of covet so kobits has you know it’s had
18:55
an effect on everything the criminal justice system the Emmys office right everywhere really so
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um so it takes a long time for that data to be recorded and then reported and then
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you know translated into the statistics that you and I can Google so absolutely but the numbers I would say the numbers
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are going to go up absolutely do you work with a team if you I don’t know how much you can tell us about your team but
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do you have a whole team of people that are focused on fentanyl or are you specific to fentanyl with everything else falling into the yeah so so the
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team I’m on um we kind of came up uh with it with the concept where we’re responding to
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the overdose deaths and it’s not just that I’ll respond to to pretty much any of them um
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and uh uh yeah we’re a team it’s a team concept you can’t do this alone
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um and I feel I feel bad for a smaller agency officer that may not have the assets that we do while they may not
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have the volume of issues that we have it’s still a lot to take on uh you know
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as an individual so having a team we always feel like we don’t have enough people but we we do what we can
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and we make it work but but yeah we have a team of guys that are really they’re passionate about this and that’s what
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that’s what makes this work for us I know we’re all grateful for the work you’re doing that goes without saying
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but do you feel like you’re making a difference in this do you feel like uh there will be a curve where this will
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stop being an increasing problem every month every year is stuff being done
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enough in your eyes that this will slow down and potentially stop one day
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so I I don’t I couldn’t answer that question uh whether it’s going to slow down and stop one day I doubt it will
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because greed is a powerful thing and right now people are choosing profits over people the profits over lives and
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uh and that’s at every level that’s you know the people making in China the people making it Mexico and the people selling it here they’re choosing to kill
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the people next door for for a little bit of money so I I think that’s a problem that we inherently have as as
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humans um so I don’t think it’s going to go away um the first part of that question is do
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you think we’re making a difference uh globally no I don’t think we’re making a difference uh in the state of Texas are
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we making a huge impact no but we’re making an impact for that Mom that lost her 15 year old or that that that kid
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that lost his his mom or you know that’s who we make an impact for so I can tell this matter student that’s really
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important I appreciate your your candor here um uh
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or anything being done to go after the sources are we are we doing anything in China and I know that cartels are the
21:37
cartels we always are at war with those guys but yeah um I don’t know I can’t speak to that
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that would be way above me as far as what’s been done to target the people in China uh our goal in every investigation
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we do whether we start you know with the guy selling five um five pills on the street corner our
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goal is always work it up so our goal is always to find the person that supplied them and then find the person to supply
22:03
them and find their source and then find where it’s coming from and so we try to work every investigation back as far as
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we go um our ultimate goal you know is to find the source in Mexico and take it Federal
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and partner with DEA or HSI FBI whoever whoever the case overlaps with which in
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this is usually DEA um and work it back to the original destination Source
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um we’ve we’ve had some success doing that we’ve had some pretty good seizures
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[Music] outside of Fort Worth and even other teams in our in in our narcotics section
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have had success with chasing stuff back to sources outside of Texas right so um so yeah I mean I think it’s uh that’s
22:46
always the goal people are going to jail I mean the people you’re making you guys are making arrests absolutely yeah we’re
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putting people in jail um as a matter of fact while we’re while we’re doing this my team’s out there
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trying to put somebody in jail for a recent overdose so so yeah we’re doing
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it um we’re doing it daily um and uh sometimes we have great success
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sometimes we’re banging our head on the wall but uh understood but yeah is there anything you could say to the to the I
23:16
mean I’m not asking you to we all know that doing drugs carries an inherent risk yeah I think that’s obvious but
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yeah what would you say to somebody that I mean because this is happening is it do you ever give do you ever tell people
23:29
that if you’re going to do drugs don’t do this is there is that even a yeah I
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mean we counsel like we we get we get to I say counsel but we when we get to to
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these overdoses and the people survive right we talk to them um if it’s somebody that’s receptive you
23:46
can tell pretty quick um if it’s somebody that’s addicted you can tell pretty quick as well right um
23:52
so we tell them tell them all the time hey you know this is going to kill you most of them yeah we know
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excuse me but um uh but we talked to parents too we try
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to educate them on what they can do um to and things to look for uh we we talked to schools we we do
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presentations for uh administrators and staff at schools um until you know Telltale science what
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to look for how to respond um and then uh doing things like this uh
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doing interviews um uh doing podcasts like this and we try to get out there you know the parents the things to look for
24:31
um the social media apps you know know what your kids are doing on their phones uh there’s a thing that Apple does
24:37
that’s pretty cool called The Legacy contact and if you have kids um I urge you to set up the Legacy
24:44
contact you know if something happens to your kids um you could be named The Legacy contact
24:49
that would give them access to that would give you access to your kid’s phone if you didn’t know that if they
24:54
changed the passcode you didn’t know it because a lot of these investigations the the evidence we need is on that
25:00
phone sure and uh you know parents come to us all the time and like I have my kids phone I know his dealer was he was
25:06
talking to him on Instagram or you know Snapchat or whatever it was but they give us the phone and there’s no
25:12
passcode and sometimes we have success getting into them and sometimes we don’t and a lot of those investigations will
25:18
will halt if we can’t get to that evidence um so having the access to that phone
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and you know if your kids are not young enough demanding that you know their passcode actually looking and seeing
25:30
what they’re doing on their phones there’s several uh third-party apps out there where you know if your kids are
25:36
young enough where you can actually log into your phone and see what they’re doing on their phone right
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um social media apps like Instagram and Snapchat I’ll hold off on those as long as you
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can those are not a good place for young kids and access to so much stuff and
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they’re in the drug World um I can’t tell you how many of these these people we’ve dealt with met their
25:59
dealer on you know a social media app or ordered their dope through their social media app right so that’s huge um
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and and truly there’s so many studies into that stuff that you know unrelated to narcotics even that how how awful it
26:15
is for young kids but um on this aspect of it yeah hold off on that as long as you can and if you do allow them to have
26:22
it make sure you have access to check it and check history and right and everything else so uh and on another
26:29
note um if you have somebody you know even if you just think they smoke marijuana
26:35
get some Narcan keep it in your house know how to use it is that an over-the-counter it’s uh
26:41
um yeah you can request it at your Pharmacy there’s a lot of um
26:46
uh non-profit organizations out there that Supply it if you have somebody that
26:52
you know is using then you better have multiple doses tell us about tell us what Narcan is people so so Narcan is a
26:58
um it’s an opioid blocker um so what what happens if if you’re
27:04
you’re using an opioid you have the receptors in your brain that absorb the opioid and Narcan will go in there and
27:11
block those receptors from receiving those signals so it basically reverses the effects of the overdose and uh if
27:19
you can get it administered fast enough then it can stop the overdose the person will come out of it
27:25
um and it’s really what has kind of turned the tide I mean these numbers for these
27:30
deaths would be through the roof had we not Narcan not been available you know
27:37
and uh um so if you have somebody struggling with even if you think they’re just party drugs because all
27:44
your MDMA your your you know your ecstasy all those now are um there’s a
27:49
potential for fentanyl to be on those uh really there’s not a safe drug if you’re not getting it from a pharmacy
27:56
there’s a potential for fentanyl to be in it that’s really powerful to hear so yes all these people doing even minor
28:03
stuff if you don’t know you’re you’re still you’re taking a risk that you probably don’t want to take absolutely absolutely and and uh earlier you asked
28:11
um I I like to use this as an example um you asked you know who’s using it or or what part of town is is it affecting
28:18
uh so in 2021 spring break there was uh uh West Point Cadets right so I mean
28:26
West Point Cadets these kids that’s a hard school to get into you have to have a letter of recommendation from a congress you know just all kinds of
28:32
crazy stuff to get in the West Point and those five Cadets on spring break in Florida and three of them overdosed
28:39
thought they were getting cocaine to party with and three of them overdosed on cocaine and two of them came and uh
28:45
started doing CPR on them and they overdosed from secondary contact to the person uh so you had five Cadets that
28:52
were out you know that uh passed out in the front yard of this house on spring break I think
28:59
I think everybody was ended up being fine uh you know EMS responded um I think two of them were you know in
29:07
pretty bad shape for a little while but I think everybody came too but but this is you know that’s that’s five kids that
29:13
you would never suspect that you would have an issue with with uh Fentanyl and here they are in Florida I think I’ve
29:19
heard a rumor of the fact that you can touch it is it is it touchable or is it
29:25
ingestible or you can get in your body through touch or Bri you said through CPR but right right
29:32
um so it once again it depends on the form of it right uh if it’s a powder form versus uh uh uphill uphill if you
29:40
handle a pill you’re not gonna you know nothing’s gonna happen to you from handling a pill that has fentanyl in it
29:46
uh you would want to wash your hands with soap and water not not hand sanitizer hand sanitizer is good for a
29:52
lot of things but fentanyl is not one of them so soap and water and wash it thoroughly uh if you come into contact
29:58
with any of it so it is ingesting it is what’s going to do it to you um whether you you know there’s a dust
30:05
from the powder uh that you breathe in or uh you know sometimes people crushing
30:10
up the pills you know it’s but the majority of people that are getting uh the effects of it are ingesting it in
30:18
one way or the other right so well since you’ve talked about the kid the parents of the kids that you’re running you’re running across that have overdosed you
30:25
said you mentioned signs little straws the pin straws any other signs that parents out there might be able to see
30:31
or recognize it might be an issue uh if you let’s see uh some of the common the
30:38
common terms that we use the perks 30s Blues uh m30s
30:43
um um menu like I’m just trying to think of some keywords that people use when
30:49
they’re when they’re texting drug dealers or or using it on their you know
30:54
apps uh asking for a menu if somebody’s asking for a menu they’re asking for you
30:59
know what they’re selling and how much it costs if they’re asking for the blues the 30s the perks those are all fentanyl
31:06
um even if you get online and just Google dope or drug emojis there’s a whole list
31:13
of emojis that are used for different drugs so um those are interesting to look at and
31:19
if you if you’re going through your friends are you excuse me your kids Instagram friends and you see somebody
31:25
that you know with these emojis next to their name they might be a source of
31:31
supply for somebody so so those are all things to look at for sure um as far as in your house
31:39
um with the fentanyl the blue pills they will if they’re crushing them if they’re
31:45
breaking them up they’ll have like a real fine blue Powder residue that you can see
31:50
um though if they’re crushing them they’re probably snorting them so once again the straws or something to actually snort the pill on a lot of
31:57
people like using the clear surface like a smooth surface like glass or a mirror to crush them on to snort them so make
32:03
sure they get all the powder out of it um and then if they’re smoking it the
32:09
foil is a huge indicator huge indicator one of the uh the new things I just read about is Rainbow
32:15
fentanyl so they’re tricking up the pills to make them look like candy they’re different colored is that sound
32:21
accurate so yeah um and I don’t know if they’re trying to I know a lot of it was might have been
32:26
um I don’t want to say it a scared tactic but when they put it out is you know trying to portray it as candy and
32:32
pushing it out I don’t necessarily think that was the intent I think that maybe they just got a good deal on this
32:37
different binder and it looked cool so they started producing it that way because it’s still marked with the m and the 30 same shape same size
32:45
um and then maybe it was just to fancy it up you know make it look cooler but uh but you are seeing these pills too I
32:52
mean um it’s not just the perks the Percocets the m30s the uh there’s
32:59
plenty of uh the Xanax bars that are being pushed out that are fake as well and they’re they’ll have either a fake
33:06
form of Alprazolam in it or it’ll have fentanyl in it so it’s not just just the in 30s that
33:15
are being pushed out the uh like I said earlier the the party drugs your MDMA your your
33:22
um all of your like raver type drugs too
33:28
those are being laced with the fentanyl as well right um some of its street names just got
33:34
this off the DEA website I believe but it’s even the street names are scary you know China girl and uh Dance Fever
33:41
murder eight tango and I don’t know if you’ve heard any of these this is what you know we’re being told right the names for tango and cash jackpot I mean
33:49
Goodfellas it’s got It’s even the street names that they’re that they lead to you
33:55
believe there’s something really seedy and devious and dangerous Behind these drugs and we all know that to be the
34:01
fact so absolutely I appreciate you sharing the ones that you that you just did the the street names that you’re dealing
34:07
with but um this might be hard to answer but when you when you’re talking to these parents
34:12
who lose a child from an overdose from fentanyl I mean is there anything the parents are telling you that you could
34:18
share with us like what they wish they had I mean we all wish they wish they could have stopped it of course but what
34:24
are the parents saying yeah I mean a lot of them carry guilt and wish they could have done more um and I think when you’re dealing with
34:30
somebody that that has an addiction uh it’s a little bit different than you’re dealing with somebody that you
34:35
know they may just spend at a party and got a pill or or um you know one you know the the whole
34:41
slogan that DEA has is one pill can kill and that’s absolutely true yeah uh sometimes it’s not even a one pill
34:47
sometimes it’s half a pill like um I’ve known a case we were to where the
34:53
girlfriend got a half and the boyfriend got a half the girlfriend died the boyfriend lived and um
34:59
so I think a lot of them wish they would have done more they wish they would have been more on top of you know had access
35:04
to their kids phone uh been more involved that way um
35:14
yeah I mean I don’t that’s fair yeah and I like I said there’s a lot of guilt
35:19
that that comes with it and uh for a parent that they’re going to carry in their bike area for the rest of their
35:25
lives you know that had I not done this had I stepped in more you know I knew my kid you know smoked weed I knew my kid
35:32
did this but I never thought he would do that uh yeah that’s that’s pretty common I knew
35:38
I knew they experimented and I knew they did this um but I never thought they would have
35:43
done that and and uh um so how I mean a big thing is have the
35:48
conversations and it’s never too young to start those conversations with your kids um I have a 12 year old and I’ve talked
35:55
to him about it since you know he was you know old enough to even understand
36:02
but have the tough conversations have them often and reinforce it ask them what they’re seeing at school if they
36:07
tell you they’re not seeing anything then they’re not being honest with you sure you know unless they’re maybe 10
36:12
but um but it’s there I mean it’s in the middle schools it’s in the high schools it’s
36:18
it’s everywhere um it truly is so is there anything People Like Us can do to be useful in
36:24
this regard I mean we all know what we’re up against and you’ve outlined a pretty hellacious uh story here but what
36:31
can people who want to be helpful do besides keep an eye on their kids is there anything we can do to help you
36:37
guys yeah I mean uh keep keep an eye on your kids is huge talk to them uh be
36:42
open and honest with them about it be open and honest with the dangers of it as far as directly supporting us
36:48
uh I I don’t know at this point what it is there’s a lot of non-profit organizations out there that help spread
36:54
awareness spreading awareness is huge um because if the parent doesn’t know what they should be doing then they’re
37:00
not going to know what to do so or they won’t do what they should be
37:06
doing I should say um so spreading awareness I know social media is a huge thing but sharing
37:13
stories on social media finding these foundations that that the non-profit organizations that that’s their mission
37:20
um and and don’t ever have the mindset of my kid would never
37:26
because there’s you know there’s always a chance there’s
37:31
a lot of parents out there that thought that their kid would never until they did yes sir and that’s that’s whether
37:37
it’s drugs you know alcohol smoking you know whatever it is
37:42
the the mindset of my kid would know there’s a lot of people that ignore stuff like this because they don’t think
37:47
it could affect them right until it does does the Fort PD have any information online about this is there a resource
37:54
for people here in Fort Worth or is it more of a federal uh I know I know for a fact DEA has tons of resources uh the
38:01
Texas National Guard counter drug program has tons of resources it has tons of resources for educators as well
38:07
school districts they have an awesome program where they can come to the schools and they have stuff to hand out
38:14
and and presentations and videos and that’s all like top-notch produced
38:20
awesome awesome stuff uh we get a lot of questions to us asking us so we can come
38:25
to schools to talk to kids and and that’s not really what we do because that takes us away from everything else
38:31
um so those programs are available um and if your school district doesn’t
38:37
have something like that pushing for that to be in the schools would be huge yeah um so that’s something that parents
38:43
can do um uh and as far as what Fort Worth I
38:48
couldn’t tell you because that’s not my area as far as what they host on the website or anything like that but I’m
38:54
sure there is some information out there I know we’ve we’ve released some media releases in the past and some uh about
39:00
Fentanyl but I can’t speak to that right now off off the top of my head so well before we
39:06
wrap this up is could you just for just for impact’s sake so people who have listened to this no they already know
39:12
that’s serious could you are you able to tell us one story one encounter you’ve had with this that just to just to bury
39:19
the bury the hatchet before we before we let you go because I mean we all know what we know and you know you can’t hear
39:26
about one dead kid is more than enough right but right people hear a real story from somebody who lives it you can’t
39:33
help but for you don’t forget that and maybe that might help somebody down the road yeah I mentioned the one uh one
39:40
earlier about the boyfriend and girlfriend that split appeal um
39:46
that one was uh I think it’s 22 22 year old girl uh beautiful young girl
39:52
um and her boyfriend she got off work went picked up a pill from the dealer
39:58
and um they came home they split it was it for that purpose for that purpose it was a
40:06
Percocet yeah at m30 uh a blue you know whatever you want to call it so
40:11
um we try not to call him oxy because they’re they’re not on well oxy is another nickname that you might hear it by but um we don’t doxycodone we don’t
40:18
really call it by that too much because it’s not there’s nothing in there that’s oxycodone so even though it’s
40:23
counterfeit counterfeit oxy yeah sure but uh um but that’s what it was it was an m30
40:29
and she had she had battle she had some addiction issues um off and on that she she uh went through
40:36
talking to her family and um um so anyways uh it took a little while
40:43
for us to we figured out who the source was pretty quickly and that’s that’s uh that’s great
40:50
um but then you have to figure out who this online person is because you know they don’t always put themselves on
40:56
there so it took us a little time to actually narrow it down and figure out who he was
41:01
um we were able to figure out who he was um and then we were able to take that
41:10
information and find somebody who could reach out to him and Order uh order more pills from
41:17
them so we started buying pills from him we got him identified and then our goal was to find other
41:25
sources of supply for him and and work it that way so I think we
41:31
I think we bought from him for it was several months we bought from him off you know periodically
41:36
before we um we lost contact with him because uh our
41:43
our source or our the person that was working with us decided they didn’t want to do this anymore so they they went
41:50
away so we had to basically re-establish contact with him and there have been a break so it was It was kind of difficult
41:57
to do um but one of one of our guys was actually able to step in and pretend
42:03
they were a high school or a college Age kid and make contact again and anyways we were able to set a deal up and arrest
42:09
the guy um and then he was prosecuted federally and Senator because of the death uh well he
42:17
played he played which uh um he did not plead to the death
42:22
but he pled guilty to the distribution and to the possession of the of the the
42:27
um of the pills so in that case that case met the thresholds and DEA jumped on board and
42:34
filed it to the ausa’s office right and uh
42:39
um so he was sentenced and he’ll be in jail for a while and and we have gosh there’s so many more
42:46
but there’s some aspect of the cases that are still still ongoing you know
42:52
we’re chasing that down the line um uh so but but yes he was sentenced
42:59
federally that was a that was a a good phone call to make to the mom to tell her hey you know we got him good so good
43:07
congratulations yeah absolutely anything else I’m forget to ask you before we wrap up um
43:14
yeah I think uh oh yes absolutely uh we get tips all
43:20
the time on drug dealers um through an anonymous uh through Crime Stoppers we get tips all the time and if
43:26
there’s somewhere you could put a link at the end of this or of the Crime Stoppers website and phone number
43:31
um we just just ask this if anybody that leaves the tip is um we get a lot of
43:37
good information but there may be some small piece that we’re missing that we need to take it from information on a
43:44
piece of paper to an active investigation and if there was some way somehow that that tipster would be
43:51
comfortable enough with making uh you know a lot of them want to stay Anonymous which is fine even even if we
43:56
contact you you’re still going to be anonymous um if you leave a phone number that tip
44:02
is never shared we don’t give that phone number out to anyone you know it’s not information that we give to anyone so if
44:09
you can put a an email address or a phone number or even if you use a text for free app it’s not your real phone
44:15
number or make a Yahoo email address that’s not your real but if there’s somebody that we can physically talk to
44:21
on the other end of that complaint that would be a game changer for us just to corroborate just to collaborate because
44:27
there may be something very very simple that that you left out of that complaint that that prevents us from doing what we
44:35
need to take that complaint to the next level um because we get information all the
44:40
time we get tons of great complaints but some of them are just missing a piece of
44:45
information and it’s no fault to the person reporting it they may think that they they just don’t know what we need
44:51
so if you’re brave enough to make that complaint you’re going to stay Anonymous
44:57
no matter what so just take that extra step to put some information on there so
45:02
we can we can take that complaint to the next level fair enough yeah well a Narcotics officer Jeremy Prescott thank
45:08
you for the time thank you for enlightening us on this crazy problem called fentanyl absolutely future time thank you for joining fortitude thank
45:14
you cap Tech’s bank until next time [Music]
45:27
[Music] media house
roxo media house
0:06
welcome back to fortitude everyone JW Wilson I’m here with a very special guest narcotics officer Jeremy Prescott
0:12
thank you for being here today Jeremy we appreciate your time the reason Jeremy’s here to talk about or he’s only he’s on
0:19
the show today to talk about a very hot topic something that scares a lot of us fit in all uh the DEA is called fentanyl
0:25
the deadliest drug uh our country’s ever seen uh it’s a synthetic opioid drug I was in
0:32
a painkiller it’s a prescription for those who get it legally it was introduced to the medical practice in
0:38
the 1960s as an intravenous analgesic uh 100 times more more potent than morphine
0:44
50 times more potent than heroin it’s a really really bad thing but a happy I’m
0:49
grateful for your time today Jeremy we’re here to learn about fentanyl so again thank you for being here and from
0:55
from your experience tell us about this terrible thing called fentanyl sure um so from my experience it kind of came
1:01
onto the scene a few years ago just kind of quietly showed up and then we saw more and more of it it
1:07
kind of exploded in our faces um and we weren’t sure what was going on
1:13
with it where it was coming from um and as were the consumers uh they thought they were getting legitimate
1:19
prescription drugs that turned out to be counterfeit drugs laced with or laced
1:25
but made with fentanyl and it started wreaking havoc on us so we kind of had
1:30
to turn around and figure out what was going on and how to pursue it how to chase it and use our you know our
1:36
traditional means of Narcotics investigations and try to gear it towards this new threat and this new
1:41
problem for those who aren’t super familiar with it like I said it’s a it’s
1:46
a painkiller of sorts an opioid painkiller absolutely yeah why why would people want this outside of the general
1:52
like surgery or if they’re in great deal of pain from a from a doctor but why would somebody want fentanyl so I don’t
1:58
think you the majority of people that are getting it or seeking fentanyl out majority of them are getting it uh
2:04
disguised as something else okay you have to keep in mind the prescription issue to this the stuff that’s issued in
2:10
the prescription form the stuff used in the hospital is dosed in micrograms so you’re talking very finite amounts of
2:15
fentanyl being entered into a person’s system well when you’re getting this stuff in the streets you’re getting an
2:21
upwards of 1.5 you know a milligram up to five milligrams per pill with a
2:26
deadly dose of fentanyl be in it like two and a half milligrams which is the equivalent of I saw five grains of salt
2:33
five grains of salt right unbelievable absolutely so you’re talking about a very very fine line between what could
2:39
be considered uh non-fatal and fatal and that’s kind of where the problem arises
2:45
before we get to the source of this and how it’s entering our our culture uh the
2:50
FDA has approved this this drug for pain like we talked about is the FDA are they
2:57
in a process to stop allowing it to be approved is it is it still going to remain as a painkiller regardless of the
3:04
the problem it’s causing yeah I I don’t know that I don’t imagine that they would go down that route to unapprove it
3:10
um but I can’t speak on that surely okay well let’s start from the from the the
3:16
ground floor where is fentanyl coming from so the majority of the fentanyl we’re seeing is coming from China uh
3:22
either shipped as the final powder product or as precursor chemicals it’s being shipped to Mexico
3:29
and then in Mexico it’s being either processed in its powder form or
3:35
turned into the powder form uh in labs in Mexico into these like oxycodone into
3:41
the oxycodonex things like that X and even just raw powder why are the why are people mixing it with a not called
3:47
oxycodone what what is what is the benefit to the dealer the manufacturer or the why is it being involved in other
3:54
drugs so as far as with the oxycodone it’s not being mixed with regular oxycodone it’s just being pressed to
4:00
make it look like an oxycodone pill okay an oxycodone pill is it was a very
4:05
popularly abused medication now it’s really hard to find because all the
4:10
control measures that are in place but the heroin addicts and and people that were addicted to heroin that wanted
4:16
something else but often used the Oxys right um and then when that once that kind of
4:22
got shut down there was kind of the Void in there and they saw this void and they figured they could start pushing these
4:28
pills uh in the U.S because of the the the opioid epidemic here so now we have
4:34
we have all these people that are seeking these pills the painkillers so somebody decided this is a good way we
4:41
can fill that void with the counterfeit pills is it cheaper to manufacture than an oxycodone so it’s a is it a it’s a
4:48
price thing it’s it’s very cheap it’s very cheap for them to manufacture these pills and it’s very profitable guessing
4:54
the drug cartels in Mexico are behind the majority of this correct
4:59
um these chemicals that go into it that make it so potent we’ve talked about a hundred times more potent than morphine
5:05
and 50 times more than heroin that’s staggering but what are the chemicals involved are you familiar with this what
5:10
makes it so potent I mean as far as I mean the fentanyl is what makes it potent that’s the active ingredient that’s the active ingredient the rest of
5:17
what’s going to be in the pill is going to be acetaminophen or some kind of binder which is what holds everything
5:22
together or and some type of coloring agent to get it to that blue color but other than that it’s it’s a
5:29
it’s going to be Fentanyl and it’s going probably by by Road up through the
5:34
border to all over the country is that typically how you find it you find it it’s going to people that deal it’s
5:39
let’s let’s stay here in Dallas Fort Worth for the present conversation but it’s arriving in these packages like you
5:45
said whether it’s oxycodone powder pills all the forms that it shows up and then
5:51
it’s being sold to people uh by purpose by accident I mean there’s an attempt to
5:57
sell it obviously but these people are uh are the people that are buying this stuff are they they’re not always
6:02
wanting fentanyl or the warning in at all is there a desire for the drug called fentanyl so I’ve seen in some cases the desire for the fentanyl in
6:10
some cases we see that people know that it’s Fentanyl and they just disregard it because of their addiction right and
6:16
then we’ve seen people that just get it not knowing what’s in it it’s not sold as fentanyl it’s not labeled as fentanyl
6:22
it’s not packages Fentanyl um it’s often sold by you know whatever the Common Street name is uh a lot of
6:29
times in the Oxycodone pills it’s perks which you start short for percocets as blues m30s 30s uh those are the you know
6:38
the markings on the pill and that’s kind of what people call them perks is one of the real common names that that it’s
6:44
asked for by uh by now I would think that most people know that they’re not legitimate I’m just sure there’s still
6:51
people out there that don’t know especially people that are kind of new to the the drug world may not know but
6:56
um most people know that they’re not getting legitimate pills so the folks that are making their making up in the
7:03
news or in the hospitals these are generally people buying something then fentanyls obviously there it’s it’s
7:08
taking them down so it’s a it’s an it’s an accidental overdose it’s not again no
7:13
one tends to overdose typically but these are excellent overdoses because fentanyl is being introduced into something they normally would get high
7:20
off of correct uh correct and and and yeah the terminology accidental overdose
7:26
is kind of uh in some cases uh there’s there’s actually there’s legislation that was just passed recently
7:32
um that I believe it’s in the Senate now in Texas to change it where some of these can be labeled as poisonings
7:38
because the person that’s taking it doesn’t know what they’re ingesting right so you’re you’re handing me
7:44
something that I don’t know that I ingest so now it’s not an external overdose it’s a poisoning right and if
7:50
that All Passes then those could actually be investigated as murder cases when you encounter someone on on
7:56
fentanyl or what is what does a typical scene look like is there a general sense of what you this this world looks like
8:03
under fentanyl uh so I mean it depends on what stage they’re at
8:08
um how they’re using it how they’re how much they’re using but it it’s a it will
8:14
kind of like a depressant so it’s going to kind of bring them down um as far as what you’re going to see
8:21
um uh they’re gonna doze off a lot of dozing off um hard to stay awake
8:27
um and that’s what you’re going to observe now if it’s something if it’s a fatal overdose I mean within minutes they’re
8:33
going to be gone they’re going to be unconscious on the floor stop breathing um so yeah I mean it acts very very
8:40
close Narcan is that the obvious solution to an overdose with this particular drug absolutely administering
8:46
or Narcan um as soon as possible to reverse the effects of the the opioid or block the
8:52
effects of the opioid is tremendous in helping save people that are overdosing
8:58
you mentioned a few of the symptoms what what is fentanyl what does it do to people that gives it a I mean it’s
9:04
obviously it’s not a desired effect but it gives them some sort of high what is fentanyl doing to people so I guess it’s
9:11
just a euphoric High I don’t I don’t uh I don’t know the exact it’s it’s uh I
9:16
want to say different for everybody but um I don’t know the exact way that makes them feel but a lot of
9:23
people that are addicted to it need it to feel normal like if they don’t get that high they’re going to get dope sick
9:29
and and it’s going to be a bad day for them I see some of these side effects and you alluded to a few of them
9:35
drowsiness nausea confusion constipation sedation tolerance addiction respiratory
9:41
depression arresting and Consciousness so it’s got all the things I mean I uh
9:47
okay now we’ve kind of covered what it’s doing to people what what are what are
9:52
happening what’s happening in the with you guys as far as trying to stop this problem because obviously it hit the scene like you said quickly and it’s
9:59
gonna become a massive problem absolutely and you agree with that absolutely what is being done or
10:04
attempting to being done to stop it because it’s it’s everywhere now right it is everywhere
10:09
um I can tell you that uh just here I can only speak to what we’re doing
10:15
um but uh we’ve put together teams that focus on chasing the fentanyl we put together teams uh that uh will actually
10:24
you know as long as the notification process works like it should we’ll we will respond to the overdoses
10:31
um so if we get an overdose we get the response we can actually go up show up on scene assess the situation interview
10:37
people uh collect evidence uh you know download phones if that’s possible and
10:44
actually Target the person that’s selling the bill that that killed the person or caused the person to to uh
10:50
overdose so that’s something that we’ve had some success with um and it’s relatively A New Concept
10:57
something that we’re we’re really pushing through and and uh trying to figure it out as we go have you guys had
11:03
any successes as far as seizures and busts and things of that nature yes absolutely we’ve uh we’ve had some
11:09
successes and a lot of these cases if we can Will partner with uh you know our
11:14
federal agencies Federal partners and try to take these cases federally just because the statutes federally may have
11:20
a little bit more teeth in them um and we’ve had some success uh
11:25
yeah absolutely have had some success Prosecuting these cases especially on the federal side so there are some
11:31
federal uh Aid behind you guys from to do this more often and keep these people these bad guys behind bars and and a lot
11:39
of the the three-letter agencies they’ve made it there they’ve made this their priority as well
11:44
um this is Enemy Number One in their in their eyes you know they’re chasing they’re chasing the Fentanyl and
11:49
Fentanyl Distributors as well could I touch on that one more time uh everybody knows you know methamphetamine cocaine
11:56
the the really hard stuff that your heroin uh stuff but why is why is
12:02
fentanyl surpassed all those so quickly but again we’ve talked about it’s being mixed in and right unbeknownst to a lot
12:08
of people but why is it jumped on the scene in such force uh because it’s cheap it’s cheap and it takes such small
12:13
amounts to be potent so you could take uh for example we had an overdose recently where the person that died
12:20
thought that they were um ingesting cocaine um but it wasn’t it was it may have been
12:26
some cocaine but it was cocaine with fentanyl in it and so what you can do is you can take a kilo of cocaine you can
12:32
break that up add other cutting agents to it which are you know not active ingredients and then you can
12:40
sprinkle a little fentanyl over it and now you taking you know a kilo of cocaine and turn it into multiple kilos
12:46
of cocaine gotcha um without losing the potency of it because if you’re selling weak product you’re
12:52
not going to have customers coming back to you sure if you’re selling potent stuff that’s what they’re going to be asking
12:59
for I read I read two days ago uh from the date of this air of this recording that
13:05
Dallas had had 27 suspected fentanyl overdoses on one day I think it was it
13:11
was maybe a earlier this week so Wednesday let’s call it they report 27 suspect overdoses
13:17
of fentanyl in one day I mean so I’m just trying to highlight that this is a problem everybody knows it’s a problem
13:23
how often are you dealing with you’re dealing with on a daily basis are you seeing overdoses every day or is it is it become a a norm to deal with this
13:30
every day so it has become a norm and we don’t necessarily get enough notification on a death on a daily basis
13:36
doesn’t mean it’s not happening right um because in a lot of the cases the the
13:42
person overdoses um goes into cardiac arrest whatever the case is and they’re transported to the
13:48
hospital and they may die at the hospital and those deaths and those overdoses may
13:54
not get reported to us sometimes they do sometimes they don’t so in those cases
13:59
the only way we hear about it is a family member you know of the loved one who reaches out and
14:05
says hey nothing you know my son died my daughter died from this and uh you know nothing’s being done well it’s not
14:12
because we don’t know about it and um uh so we may get some of those but the majority of those just go uh just kind
14:19
of go and carry their course they died at the hospital it was an over drug overdose and that’s where it is
14:26
um so I I can’t say it’s not happening on a daily basis
14:31
um but it does happen uh quite frequently and there’s some nights where we’re going from call to call to call
14:39
um you know very long days long nights where we’ll have multiple in a day so we
14:44
haven’t had a day like that uh what you reported for Dallas right we haven’t had a day like that but we’ve had some
14:50
pretty long days you mentioned pills and some of the powders how how what are other ways that fentanyl is being
14:56
consumed so the way it’s even in the pill form uh it’s consumed in multiple ways it’s uh it’s taken orally
15:03
um which is what you’d suspect but it’s also crushed up and snorted and then it’s also smoked so um
15:11
for a key for some parents to look for a little cut straws
15:16
um like a McDonald’s straw that’s cut into a little piece or like a a piece of a a pin straw you know like a hollowed
15:24
out pen right uh with maybe some uh burnt looking like smoke on the end of
15:29
it and then foil because what they’ll do is they’ll take a piece of foil put the pill in the middle of it or a piece of
15:34
the pillow in the middle of it they’ll light it on fire it kind of melts the pill and then they take the straw and
15:40
they suck the fumes off of it and it’s one of the faster ways to get the high
15:46
introduced to the system um so and and it’s a
15:53
so yeah if you see little balls of oil little things of foil and it has kind of a burnt residue in it right then you’re
16:00
you’re probably dealing with somebody that has a pretty decent addiction problem they don’t people don’t start off smoking pills right
16:07
um but they get there pretty quick and and some of these some of these locations that we watch so
16:12
we’re building cases on we can see customers go in come out get in their car and they can’t even get out of the
16:18
parking lot of where they bought it from before they start smoking their pills so it’s it’s a
16:26
um is there uh is there a part of Fort Worth it’s it’s more it’s more prevalent is it North side where typically I’ve
16:33
I’ve read years years and years years of reading about stuff like this I think North Side tends to be the the center
16:40
point of drug activity in this in this city is that still the case or is it is it you’re finding it everywhere even the
16:46
affluent communities Now everywhere it’s everywhere it’s it it’s all over Fort Worth the surrounding jurisdictions the
16:52
surrounding cities we partner and work with a lot of the other agencies in the area uh on these cases so it’s it’s
16:59
everywhere the age of folks that are generally doing this is there any is it young children is it older people does
17:06
it matter anymore uh so it really doesn’t matter anymore I think statistically speaking on a national level age 18 to 45 this is the leading
17:13
cause of death for 18 to 45 year olds um but I we’ve I worked overdose to
17:20
Deaths of 15 year olds I’ve worked over those deaths of 56 year olds so it runs
17:25
kind of the gamut of age um there’s not one real target age I guess yeah not to get too personal but
17:32
what what is it I mean this is a very tough question to ask somebody because I know the answer but how do you process a
17:39
15 year old overdose yeah it’s tough I have kids of my own so it’s tough It’s like I told my wife I said I’m tired of
17:45
talking to parents and dead kids seriously so like getting this word out is like absolutely I saw that in in 2021
17:54
this is a stat from off the CDC I believe or might be in the DEA website
17:59
in this follows up with the point you just made 77 percent of all teen overdose deaths uh involved Fentanyl
18:06
uh that was about 70 000 kids in this country uh and that’s from the net
18:12
season the national Safety Council which is a 26 increase over 2020 so we’re now
18:17
in year 2023 I don’t know if I couldn’t find data on 2022 but I can only imagine
18:23
it’s considerably higher than 2021 so right do you know any of the stats so I
18:28
don’t I don’t have the stats and uh part I think part of the reason that it takes so long to get the stats in is
18:34
um just for example in Tarrant County our medical examiner’s office it may take them three or four months to
18:40
complete uh the toxicology reports and that go along with the autopsy report just because of the volume and uh and
18:48
places are still you wouldn’t think this but places are still backed up because of covet so kobits has you know it’s had
18:55
an effect on everything the criminal justice system the Emmys office right everywhere really so
19:02
um so it takes a long time for that data to be recorded and then reported and then
19:07
you know translated into the statistics that you and I can Google so absolutely but the numbers I would say the numbers
19:14
are going to go up absolutely do you work with a team if you I don’t know how much you can tell us about your team but
19:20
do you have a whole team of people that are focused on fentanyl or are you specific to fentanyl with everything else falling into the yeah so so the
19:28
team I’m on um we kind of came up uh with it with the concept where we’re responding to
19:34
the overdose deaths and it’s not just that I’ll respond to to pretty much any of them um
19:40
and uh uh yeah we’re a team it’s a team concept you can’t do this alone
19:45
um and I feel I feel bad for a smaller agency officer that may not have the assets that we do while they may not
19:52
have the volume of issues that we have it’s still a lot to take on uh you know
19:58
as an individual so having a team we always feel like we don’t have enough people but we we do what we can
20:04
and we make it work but but yeah we have a team of guys that are really they’re passionate about this and that’s what
20:09
that’s what makes this work for us I know we’re all grateful for the work you’re doing that goes without saying
20:15
but do you feel like you’re making a difference in this do you feel like uh there will be a curve where this will
20:20
stop being an increasing problem every month every year is stuff being done
20:26
enough in your eyes that this will slow down and potentially stop one day
20:32
so I I don’t I couldn’t answer that question uh whether it’s going to slow down and stop one day I doubt it will
20:38
because greed is a powerful thing and right now people are choosing profits over people the profits over lives and
20:46
uh and that’s at every level that’s you know the people making in China the people making it Mexico and the people selling it here they’re choosing to kill
20:53
the people next door for for a little bit of money so I I think that’s a problem that we inherently have as as
21:00
humans um so I don’t think it’s going to go away um the first part of that question is do
21:06
you think we’re making a difference uh globally no I don’t think we’re making a difference uh in the state of Texas are
21:12
we making a huge impact no but we’re making an impact for that Mom that lost her 15 year old or that that that kid
21:20
that lost his his mom or you know that’s who we make an impact for so I can tell this matter student that’s really
21:26
important I appreciate your your candor here um uh
21:32
or anything being done to go after the sources are we are we doing anything in China and I know that cartels are the
21:37
cartels we always are at war with those guys but yeah um I don’t know I can’t speak to that
21:44
that would be way above me as far as what’s been done to target the people in China uh our goal in every investigation
21:51
we do whether we start you know with the guy selling five um five pills on the street corner our
21:57
goal is always work it up so our goal is always to find the person that supplied them and then find the person to supply
22:03
them and find their source and then find where it’s coming from and so we try to work every investigation back as far as
22:09
we go um our ultimate goal you know is to find the source in Mexico and take it Federal
22:15
and partner with DEA or HSI FBI whoever whoever the case overlaps with which in
22:22
this is usually DEA um and work it back to the original destination Source
22:27
um we’ve we’ve had some success doing that we’ve had some pretty good seizures
22:33
[Music] outside of Fort Worth and even other teams in our in in our narcotics section
22:39
have had success with chasing stuff back to sources outside of Texas right so um so yeah I mean I think it’s uh that’s
22:46
always the goal people are going to jail I mean the people you’re making you guys are making arrests absolutely yeah we’re
22:52
putting people in jail um as a matter of fact while we’re while we’re doing this my team’s out there
22:58
trying to put somebody in jail for a recent overdose so so yeah we’re doing
23:03
it um we’re doing it daily um and uh sometimes we have great success
23:10
sometimes we’re banging our head on the wall but uh understood but yeah is there anything you could say to the to the I
23:16
mean I’m not asking you to we all know that doing drugs carries an inherent risk yeah I think that’s obvious but
23:22
yeah what would you say to somebody that I mean because this is happening is it do you ever give do you ever tell people
23:29
that if you’re going to do drugs don’t do this is there is that even a yeah I
23:35
mean we counsel like we we get we get to I say counsel but we when we get to to
23:40
these overdoses and the people survive right we talk to them um if it’s somebody that’s receptive you
23:46
can tell pretty quick um if it’s somebody that’s addicted you can tell pretty quick as well right um
23:52
so we tell them tell them all the time hey you know this is going to kill you most of them yeah we know
23:59
excuse me but um uh but we talked to parents too we try
24:04
to educate them on what they can do um to and things to look for uh we we talked to schools we we do
24:12
presentations for uh administrators and staff at schools um until you know Telltale science what
24:19
to look for how to respond um and then uh doing things like this uh
24:24
doing interviews um uh doing podcasts like this and we try to get out there you know the parents the things to look for
24:31
um the social media apps you know know what your kids are doing on their phones uh there’s a thing that Apple does
24:37
that’s pretty cool called The Legacy contact and if you have kids um I urge you to set up the Legacy
24:44
contact you know if something happens to your kids um you could be named The Legacy contact
24:49
that would give them access to that would give you access to your kid’s phone if you didn’t know that if they
24:54
changed the passcode you didn’t know it because a lot of these investigations the the evidence we need is on that
25:00
phone sure and uh you know parents come to us all the time and like I have my kids phone I know his dealer was he was
25:06
talking to him on Instagram or you know Snapchat or whatever it was but they give us the phone and there’s no
25:12
passcode and sometimes we have success getting into them and sometimes we don’t and a lot of those investigations will
25:18
will halt if we can’t get to that evidence um so having the access to that phone
25:24
and you know if your kids are not young enough demanding that you know their passcode actually looking and seeing
25:30
what they’re doing on their phones there’s several uh third-party apps out there where you know if your kids are
25:36
young enough where you can actually log into your phone and see what they’re doing on their phone right
25:41
um social media apps like Instagram and Snapchat I’ll hold off on those as long as you
25:47
can those are not a good place for young kids and access to so much stuff and
25:53
they’re in the drug World um I can’t tell you how many of these these people we’ve dealt with met their
25:59
dealer on you know a social media app or ordered their dope through their social media app right so that’s huge um
26:07
and and truly there’s so many studies into that stuff that you know unrelated to narcotics even that how how awful it
26:15
is for young kids but um on this aspect of it yeah hold off on that as long as you can and if you do allow them to have
26:22
it make sure you have access to check it and check history and right and everything else so uh and on another
26:29
note um if you have somebody you know even if you just think they smoke marijuana
26:35
get some Narcan keep it in your house know how to use it is that an over-the-counter it’s uh
26:41
um yeah you can request it at your Pharmacy there’s a lot of um
26:46
uh non-profit organizations out there that Supply it if you have somebody that
26:52
you know is using then you better have multiple doses tell us about tell us what Narcan is people so so Narcan is a
26:58
um it’s an opioid blocker um so what what happens if if you’re
27:04
you’re using an opioid you have the receptors in your brain that absorb the opioid and Narcan will go in there and
27:11
block those receptors from receiving those signals so it basically reverses the effects of the overdose and uh if
27:19
you can get it administered fast enough then it can stop the overdose the person will come out of it
27:25
um and it’s really what has kind of turned the tide I mean these numbers for these
27:30
deaths would be through the roof had we not Narcan not been available you know
27:37
and uh um so if you have somebody struggling with even if you think they’re just party drugs because all
27:44
your MDMA your your you know your ecstasy all those now are um there’s a
27:49
potential for fentanyl to be on those uh really there’s not a safe drug if you’re not getting it from a pharmacy
27:56
there’s a potential for fentanyl to be in it that’s really powerful to hear so yes all these people doing even minor
28:03
stuff if you don’t know you’re you’re still you’re taking a risk that you probably don’t want to take absolutely absolutely and and uh earlier you asked
28:11
um I I like to use this as an example um you asked you know who’s using it or or what part of town is is it affecting
28:18
uh so in 2021 spring break there was uh uh West Point Cadets right so I mean
28:26
West Point Cadets these kids that’s a hard school to get into you have to have a letter of recommendation from a congress you know just all kinds of
28:32
crazy stuff to get in the West Point and those five Cadets on spring break in Florida and three of them overdosed
28:39
thought they were getting cocaine to party with and three of them overdosed on cocaine and two of them came and uh
28:45
started doing CPR on them and they overdosed from secondary contact to the person uh so you had five Cadets that
28:52
were out you know that uh passed out in the front yard of this house on spring break I think
28:59
I think everybody was ended up being fine uh you know EMS responded um I think two of them were you know in
29:07
pretty bad shape for a little while but I think everybody came too but but this is you know that’s that’s five kids that
29:13
you would never suspect that you would have an issue with with uh Fentanyl and here they are in Florida I think I’ve
29:19
heard a rumor of the fact that you can touch it is it is it touchable or is it
29:25
ingestible or you can get in your body through touch or Bri you said through CPR but right right
29:32
um so it once again it depends on the form of it right uh if it’s a powder form versus uh uh uphill uphill if you
29:40
handle a pill you’re not gonna you know nothing’s gonna happen to you from handling a pill that has fentanyl in it
29:46
uh you would want to wash your hands with soap and water not not hand sanitizer hand sanitizer is good for a
29:52
lot of things but fentanyl is not one of them so soap and water and wash it thoroughly uh if you come into contact
29:58
with any of it so it is ingesting it is what’s going to do it to you um whether you you know there’s a dust
30:05
from the powder uh that you breathe in or uh you know sometimes people crushing
30:10
up the pills you know it’s but the majority of people that are getting uh the effects of it are ingesting it in
30:18
one way or the other right so well since you’ve talked about the kid the parents of the kids that you’re running you’re running across that have overdosed you
30:25
said you mentioned signs little straws the pin straws any other signs that parents out there might be able to see
30:31
or recognize it might be an issue uh if you let’s see uh some of the common the
30:38
common terms that we use the perks 30s Blues uh m30s
30:43
um um menu like I’m just trying to think of some keywords that people use when
30:49
they’re when they’re texting drug dealers or or using it on their you know
30:54
apps uh asking for a menu if somebody’s asking for a menu they’re asking for you
30:59
know what they’re selling and how much it costs if they’re asking for the blues the 30s the perks those are all fentanyl
31:06
um even if you get online and just Google dope or drug emojis there’s a whole list
31:13
of emojis that are used for different drugs so um those are interesting to look at and
31:19
if you if you’re going through your friends are you excuse me your kids Instagram friends and you see somebody
31:25
that you know with these emojis next to their name they might be a source of
31:31
supply for somebody so so those are all things to look at for sure um as far as in your house
31:39
um with the fentanyl the blue pills they will if they’re crushing them if they’re
31:45
breaking them up they’ll have like a real fine blue Powder residue that you can see
31:50
um though if they’re crushing them they’re probably snorting them so once again the straws or something to actually snort the pill on a lot of
31:57
people like using the clear surface like a smooth surface like glass or a mirror to crush them on to snort them so make
32:03
sure they get all the powder out of it um and then if they’re smoking it the
32:09
foil is a huge indicator huge indicator one of the uh the new things I just read about is Rainbow
32:15
fentanyl so they’re tricking up the pills to make them look like candy they’re different colored is that sound
32:21
accurate so yeah um and I don’t know if they’re trying to I know a lot of it was might have been
32:26
um I don’t want to say it a scared tactic but when they put it out is you know trying to portray it as candy and
32:32
pushing it out I don’t necessarily think that was the intent I think that maybe they just got a good deal on this
32:37
different binder and it looked cool so they started producing it that way because it’s still marked with the m and the 30 same shape same size
32:45
um and then maybe it was just to fancy it up you know make it look cooler but uh but you are seeing these pills too I
32:52
mean um it’s not just the perks the Percocets the m30s the uh there’s
32:59
plenty of uh the Xanax bars that are being pushed out that are fake as well and they’re they’ll have either a fake
33:06
form of Alprazolam in it or it’ll have fentanyl in it so it’s not just just the in 30s that
33:15
are being pushed out the uh like I said earlier the the party drugs your MDMA your your
33:22
um all of your like raver type drugs too
33:28
those are being laced with the fentanyl as well right um some of its street names just got
33:34
this off the DEA website I believe but it’s even the street names are scary you know China girl and uh Dance Fever
33:41
murder eight tango and I don’t know if you’ve heard any of these this is what you know we’re being told right the names for tango and cash jackpot I mean
33:49
Goodfellas it’s got It’s even the street names that they’re that they lead to you
33:55
believe there’s something really seedy and devious and dangerous Behind these drugs and we all know that to be the
34:01
fact so absolutely I appreciate you sharing the ones that you that you just did the the street names that you’re dealing
34:07
with but um this might be hard to answer but when you when you’re talking to these parents
34:12
who lose a child from an overdose from fentanyl I mean is there anything the parents are telling you that you could
34:18
share with us like what they wish they had I mean we all wish they wish they could have stopped it of course but what
34:24
are the parents saying yeah I mean a lot of them carry guilt and wish they could have done more um and I think when you’re dealing with
34:30
somebody that that has an addiction uh it’s a little bit different than you’re dealing with somebody that you
34:35
know they may just spend at a party and got a pill or or um you know one you know the the whole
34:41
slogan that DEA has is one pill can kill and that’s absolutely true yeah uh sometimes it’s not even a one pill
34:47
sometimes it’s half a pill like um I’ve known a case we were to where the
34:53
girlfriend got a half and the boyfriend got a half the girlfriend died the boyfriend lived and um
34:59
so I think a lot of them wish they would have done more they wish they would have been more on top of you know had access
35:04
to their kids phone uh been more involved that way um
35:14
yeah I mean I don’t that’s fair yeah and I like I said there’s a lot of guilt
35:19
that that comes with it and uh for a parent that they’re going to carry in their bike area for the rest of their
35:25
lives you know that had I not done this had I stepped in more you know I knew my kid you know smoked weed I knew my kid
35:32
did this but I never thought he would do that uh yeah that’s that’s pretty common I knew
35:38
I knew they experimented and I knew they did this um but I never thought they would have
35:43
done that and and uh um so how I mean a big thing is have the
35:48
conversations and it’s never too young to start those conversations with your kids um I have a 12 year old and I’ve talked
35:55
to him about it since you know he was you know old enough to even understand
36:02
but have the tough conversations have them often and reinforce it ask them what they’re seeing at school if they
36:07
tell you they’re not seeing anything then they’re not being honest with you sure you know unless they’re maybe 10
36:12
but um but it’s there I mean it’s in the middle schools it’s in the high schools it’s
36:18
it’s everywhere um it truly is so is there anything People Like Us can do to be useful in
36:24
this regard I mean we all know what we’re up against and you’ve outlined a pretty hellacious uh story here but what
36:31
can people who want to be helpful do besides keep an eye on their kids is there anything we can do to help you
36:37
guys yeah I mean uh keep keep an eye on your kids is huge talk to them uh be
36:42
open and honest with them about it be open and honest with the dangers of it as far as directly supporting us
36:48
uh I I don’t know at this point what it is there’s a lot of non-profit organizations out there that help spread
36:54
awareness spreading awareness is huge um because if the parent doesn’t know what they should be doing then they’re
37:00
not going to know what to do so or they won’t do what they should be
37:06
doing I should say um so spreading awareness I know social media is a huge thing but sharing
37:13
stories on social media finding these foundations that that the non-profit organizations that that’s their mission
37:20
um and and don’t ever have the mindset of my kid would never
37:26
because there’s you know there’s always a chance there’s
37:31
a lot of parents out there that thought that their kid would never until they did yes sir and that’s that’s whether
37:37
it’s drugs you know alcohol smoking you know whatever it is
37:42
the the mindset of my kid would know there’s a lot of people that ignore stuff like this because they don’t think
37:47
it could affect them right until it does does the Fort PD have any information online about this is there a resource
37:54
for people here in Fort Worth or is it more of a federal uh I know I know for a fact DEA has tons of resources uh the
38:01
Texas National Guard counter drug program has tons of resources it has tons of resources for educators as well
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school districts they have an awesome program where they can come to the schools and they have stuff to hand out
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and and presentations and videos and that’s all like top-notch produced
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awesome awesome stuff uh we get a lot of questions to us asking us so we can come
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to schools to talk to kids and and that’s not really what we do because that takes us away from everything else
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um so those programs are available um and if your school district doesn’t
38:37
have something like that pushing for that to be in the schools would be huge yeah um so that’s something that parents
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can do um uh and as far as what Fort Worth I
38:48
couldn’t tell you because that’s not my area as far as what they host on the website or anything like that but I’m
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sure there is some information out there I know we’ve we’ve released some media releases in the past and some uh about
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Fentanyl but I can’t speak to that right now off off the top of my head so well before we
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wrap this up is could you just for just for impact’s sake so people who have listened to this no they already know
39:12
that’s serious could you are you able to tell us one story one encounter you’ve had with this that just to just to bury
39:19
the bury the hatchet before we before we let you go because I mean we all know what we know and you know you can’t hear
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about one dead kid is more than enough right but right people hear a real story from somebody who lives it you can’t
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help but for you don’t forget that and maybe that might help somebody down the road yeah I mentioned the one uh one
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earlier about the boyfriend and girlfriend that split appeal um
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that one was uh I think it’s 22 22 year old girl uh beautiful young girl
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um and her boyfriend she got off work went picked up a pill from the dealer
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and um they came home they split it was it for that purpose for that purpose it was a
40:06
Percocet yeah at m30 uh a blue you know whatever you want to call it so
40:11
um we try not to call him oxy because they’re they’re not on well oxy is another nickname that you might hear it by but um we don’t doxycodone we don’t
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really call it by that too much because it’s not there’s nothing in there that’s oxycodone so even though it’s
40:23
counterfeit counterfeit oxy yeah sure but uh um but that’s what it was it was an m30
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and she had she had battle she had some addiction issues um off and on that she she uh went through
40:36
talking to her family and um um so anyways uh it took a little while
40:43
for us to we figured out who the source was pretty quickly and that’s that’s uh that’s great
40:50
um but then you have to figure out who this online person is because you know they don’t always put themselves on
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there so it took us a little time to actually narrow it down and figure out who he was
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um we were able to figure out who he was um and then we were able to take that
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information and find somebody who could reach out to him and Order uh order more pills from
41:17
them so we started buying pills from him we got him identified and then our goal was to find other
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sources of supply for him and and work it that way so I think we
41:31
I think we bought from him for it was several months we bought from him off you know periodically
41:36
before we um we lost contact with him because uh our
41:43
our source or our the person that was working with us decided they didn’t want to do this anymore so they they went
41:50
away so we had to basically re-establish contact with him and there have been a break so it was It was kind of difficult
41:57
to do um but one of one of our guys was actually able to step in and pretend
42:03
they were a high school or a college Age kid and make contact again and anyways we were able to set a deal up and arrest
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the guy um and then he was prosecuted federally and Senator because of the death uh well he
42:17
played he played which uh um he did not plead to the death
42:22
but he pled guilty to the distribution and to the possession of the of the the
42:27
um of the pills so in that case that case met the thresholds and DEA jumped on board and
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filed it to the ausa’s office right and uh
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um so he was sentenced and he’ll be in jail for a while and and we have gosh there’s so many more
42:46
but there’s some aspect of the cases that are still still ongoing you know
42:52
we’re chasing that down the line um uh so but but yes he was sentenced
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federally that was a that was a a good phone call to make to the mom to tell her hey you know we got him good so good
43:07
congratulations yeah absolutely anything else I’m forget to ask you before we wrap up um
43:14
yeah I think uh oh yes absolutely uh we get tips all
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the time on drug dealers um through an anonymous uh through Crime Stoppers we get tips all the time and if
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there’s somewhere you could put a link at the end of this or of the Crime Stoppers website and phone number
43:31
um we just just ask this if anybody that leaves the tip is um we get a lot of
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good information but there may be some small piece that we’re missing that we need to take it from information on a
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piece of paper to an active investigation and if there was some way somehow that that tipster would be
43:51
comfortable enough with making uh you know a lot of them want to stay Anonymous which is fine even even if we
43:56
contact you you’re still going to be anonymous um if you leave a phone number that tip
44:02
is never shared we don’t give that phone number out to anyone you know it’s not information that we give to anyone so if
44:09
you can put a an email address or a phone number or even if you use a text for free app it’s not your real phone
44:15
number or make a Yahoo email address that’s not your real but if there’s somebody that we can physically talk to
44:21
on the other end of that complaint that would be a game changer for us just to corroborate just to collaborate because
44:27
there may be something very very simple that that you left out of that complaint that that prevents us from doing what we
44:35
need to take that complaint to the next level um because we get information all the
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time we get tons of great complaints but some of them are just missing a piece of
44:45
information and it’s no fault to the person reporting it they may think that they they just don’t know what we need
44:51
so if you’re brave enough to make that complaint you’re going to stay Anonymous
44:57
no matter what so just take that extra step to put some information on there so
45:02
we can we can take that complaint to the next level fair enough yeah well a Narcotics officer Jeremy Prescott thank
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you for the time thank you for enlightening us on this crazy problem called fentanyl absolutely future time thank you for joining fortitude thank
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you cap Tech’s bank until next time [Music]
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