Attorney General Jeff Sessions says federal prosecutors in western Pennsylvania, and seven other states, will pursue even seemingly small synthetic opioid cases in hopes of reducing the supply of the drugs in areas with high overdose death rates.
The new program was announced last week. Under Operation Synthetic Opioid Surge, 10 districts in eight states will choose one county in which to prosecute every case involving the sale of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, regardless of the quantity involved.
Washington County will be the focus of the program in western Pennsylvania.
The Department of Justice says there were 98 fatal drug overdoses in Washington County last year. Seventy-one of those contained fentanyl.
In Butler County, there were 92 fatal drug overdoses in 2017, according to the Butler County Coroner’s Office. Eighty-seven of them were a result of fentanyl.
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