Law Enforcement Officials Aggressively Prosecute Crimes Involving Fentanyl

Law enforcement officials at the state and federal level are aggressively prosecuting fentanyl-related crimes, The Washington Post reports.

The officials are using rarely used statutes that treat overdose deaths as homicides. They are seizing large quantities of fentanyl and charging foreign nationals with wide-ranging conspiracies. In fiscal year 2017, federal prosecutors charged 267 people with fentanyl-related crimes, compared with 74 the previous year.

“We’re seeing just a lot more fentanyl cases,” said Mary Daly, who heads opioid enforcement and prevention efforts at the Justice Department. The increase from 2016 to 2017 is “good because that means we’re catching some of it and we’re enforcing the law. But it also means that there’s more fentanyl supply,” she said.