FEATURE
The Opioid Epidemic: Meeting the Challenge By John Adams, Berks County District Attorney
T
he battle continues right here in Berks County to somehow stop people from dying. As I have stated time and time again, there are no quality controls when you chose to buy and ingest drugs that are purchased on the street. The user, and even many times the seller, have no idea that the cocaine, heroin, or methamphetamine they are peddling or buying has been cut with fentanyl or many other substances. Buyers beware because you may die when you ingest these street drugs.
Detectives from the District Attorney’s Drug Task Force and the Reading Police Department identified at least three outlets who were distributing “street level” quantities of the tainted heroin. The heroin that was being sold that caused these overdoses were all packaged similarly in blue packets. Detectives quickly developed evidence and raided three locations and arrested several suspects. Although the outlets were closed and shut down by law enforcement, detectives continued to investigate the source of the tainted heroin.
This was proven once again when we faced another mass overdose episode on April 9th and April 10th, 2022. 18 people overdosed; 11 of those died because of ingesting what we believe to be cocaine laced with fentanyl. Detectives from the Reading Police Department and the District Attorney’s Office reacted immediately and while we haven’t made any arrests to date, they are working diligently on identifying the suppliers of the drugs, and I am hopeful arrests will be made in the near future. This was the second time our community has been rocked by massive overdoses. In September 2021, we had 101 people who overdosed in a three-day period. The death toll from that episode was three people who lost their lives. The September overdose episode was called a poisoning by our fellow SOS Berks member, Dr. William Santoro. This overdose episode resulted in over one hundred hospitalizations and required the issuance of a public health alert. This episode overwhelmed the healthcare capacity for Berks County.
Subsequently, the Berks County District Attorney’s Office Drug Task Force, the City of Reading Police Department, Pennsylvania State Police and Drug Enforcement Administration teamed up and launched an investigation. During the investigation, detectives identified an organization distributing large quantities of heroin, including the sources of the tainted heroin. They identified Aurelio Xarrazana Sanchez, who resides at 119 N. 3rd Street, Reading, PA, as the main outlet for the organization in Berks County.
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THE RESPONSE // SUMMER 2022
