Families, law enforcement join forces in fight against fentanyl in NYC
NEW YORK (PIX11) -- Wednesday night, Carole Trottere was among the family members of overdose victims who attended a Family Summit on Fentanyl hosted by the Drug Enforcement Administration New York Division.
"It is a lifelong sentence," said Trottere of Long Island.
Her son, Alex Sutton, died of a drug overdose in 2018.
Those in attendance at the event at John Jay College of Criminal Justice heard the latest efforts being made by the DEA, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the NYPD to stop the flow of the synthetic drug into the United States. The DEA said there are more than 100,000 fatal overdoses a year, most linked to fentanyl.
"I think it's encouraging for us to hear there is a little bit of headway being made against drugs; I mean, we are in a war right now," Trottere told PIX11 News.
"It starts in China and India, precursor chemicals, diverted into Mexico and then synthesized into powder and pills that makes its way into the United States, and it comes into the United States in any way, shape or form, in any way possible. Cars, human beings, in parcels, mail parcels," the Special Agent in Charge of the DEA New York, Frank Tarentino told PIX11.
Tarentino said while they are going after the big cartels in Mexico, they've also had success prosecuting low-level dealers in New York after a fatal overdose. He says the investigation begins as soon as the person dies.
"The evidence we would be looking for is possibly a phone, some kind of digital device that might lead us into a direction of who might be communicating with this person that was poisoned. Maybe some drug paraphernalia or a particular type of drug that might give us a signature that would allow us to identity the type of drug and also where that drug came from," Tarentino said.
Allison Van Cott-McEntee also attended the Family Summit at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Her younger brother Steven died seven years ago of an overdose. She now runs a podcast, "The Play it Forward Project", to encourage Recovery and Prevention.
"It's been very, very heartbreaking for my family and I hope it doesn't happen to other families," Van Cott-McEntee told PIX11 News.