Part 2 of an ongoing series on the Fentanyl Crisis by South Shore Press reporter Robert Chartuk
It was supposed to be a banner day for the federal Drug Enforcement Agency: the son of the jailed Mexican drug lord El Chapo was busted for carrying on his father’s ruthless activities. Then word came out that a child died at a daycare center in the Bronx where 12 kilos of the deadly poison Fentanyl was stored under the floorboards.
DEA special agent Frank Tarentino told the story at a recent Fentanyl Summit organized by Suffolk District Attorney Raymond Tierney to keep the drug crisis in the forefront and push state legislators to strengthen the laws. According to the agent, the fentanyl that is killing people in every community across the country arrives in the U.S. under the auspices of an international criminal cartel originating in China. With tentacles all over the world, the Communist country ships the raw materials to Mexico for processing, and then it's an easy trip over President Joe Biden’s open border where enough gets in to kill every American many times over.
Riveting the attention of his audience—elected officials and families who have lost loved ones to the epidemic—Tarentino described how a dose of the synthetic opioid the size of 20 grains of salt can kill a person; a quantity in a sugar packet can kill 500. “People are dying at the rate of one victim every five minutes,” the agent noted. “Every day, we find more on the streets of Long Island,” he reported. “Seven out of 10 pills tested have lethal doses of fentanyl. The death rate is at record, catastrophic levels.”
Tarentino stressed that the drugs coming from China represent “an existential threat” to the United States. Fentanyl overdoses are the leading cause of for Americans 18-45, he said. “We’re building coalitions worldwide to defeat them. It takes a network to bring down a network.”
Prosecutors such as Ray Tierney are having trouble getting help from Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Democrats who control the legislative process in Albany. They’ve turned a deaf ear to a package of bills supported by law enforcement and victim groups designed to beat back the crisis. One is Chelsey’s Law, named for a young Lake Grove woman killed by a single dose of fentanyl. It would allow manslaughter charges against dealers if their drugs lead to death. They’re also pushing for a change in the criminal law to allow judges to set bail for anyone caught with eight ounces or less of fentanyl. Progressive Democrats in Albany under the leadership of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, eliminated bail for most offenses, leading to a crime wave sweeping across the state.
President Biden is seen as compromised on the issue since his son, Hunter, received a $1 billion investment in his company from Red China officials. “Joe Biden is weak and pathetic on the fentanyl issue,” said Marge Kochman of Port Jefferson, who lost two sons to the poison. “He refuses to confront China and keeps the border wide open while our families die. He’s a national disgrace.”