The Tarrant County District Attorney鈥檚 Office will target fentanyl dealers with a new Narcotics Unit, a three-person team designed to go after 鈥渢he stiffest sentences and fines possible鈥� for big drug makers and distributors, the DA鈥檚 office announced Monday.
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid, which is . Other drugs are often laced with fentanyl, or it鈥檚 included in counterfeit pills, leading to accidental poisonings, according to the state .
"Even seasoned drug users will take it and then they'll overdose very quickly,鈥� Assistant Tarrant County District Attorney Michael Ferry said. 鈥淚t's overwhelming EMS, fire, and it's causing all sorts of problems for a lot of people."
Ferry is a member of the new Narcotics Unit, whose sole focus is large-scale narcotics distribution cases. Those could involve people responsible for moving large amounts of drugs, or someone causing outsize problems in their city, he said.
More than 2,160 Texans died from fentanyl poisoning in 2022, up from 891 in 2020 and 1,645 in 2021, . In Tarrant County, fentanyl overdoses make up the majority of the county鈥檚 nearly 2,500 overdoses this year, in early October.
Tarrant County鈥檚 new Narcotics Unit plans to take advantage of , written by State Rep. Craig Goldman, R-Fort Worth, that allows prosecutors to seek murder charges against people who give someone else a fatal dose of fentanyl. At least 25 other states .
The Tarrant County Narcotics Unit won鈥檛 use the law in every case, Ferry said.
"If you're talking about a boyfriend giving a pill to a girlfriend, that's probably not a case that's appropriate for the murder charge,鈥� he said.
In other states, that person is usually the target of drug-induced homicide laws, Miriam Krinsky said. She鈥檚 a former federal prosecutor and the executive director of , a network of elected prosecutors who work towards criminal justice reform, and she's against drug-induced homicide laws.
"These laws are rarely used against high-level kingpins or large-scale sellers. They鈥檙e more commonly used against drug users, who are simply using drugs with friends or loved ones,鈥� she said.
There is no empirical evidence that increased prosecution reduces supply of and demand for drugs, Fair and Just Prosecution argued in about drug-induced homicide laws.
Governments need to tackle the nation's drug problem like a public health issue, Krinsky said.
鈥淭his cycling of people through our prisons and jails, it鈥檚 done nothing to address drug use and problematic substance use disorder,鈥� Krinsky said.
The Tarrant County Narcotics Unit doesn鈥檛 plan to go after individual drug users, Ferry said.
Got a tip? Email Miranda Suarez at msuarez@kera.org. You can follow Miranda on Twitter @MirandaRSuarez.
四虎影院 is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider today. Thank you.
