Ongoing Drug Raid Aims to Dent Heroin Pipeline

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DETROIT, MI - FBI-led raids in Detroit Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning respond to a surge in heroin overdose deaths in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, authorities said.

Seven federal search warrants have been executed in the area of Derby Street in Detroit, David Gelios, special agent in charge of FBI’s Detroit division, said in a statement.

Heroin use, addiction, overdoses and deaths have increased in the tri-county area, law enforcement authorities said.

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“This is the second significant enforcement operation in the last few months aimed at shutting down these illegal operations,” Gelios said. “The FBI, along with its law enforcement partners, is committed to working to combat heroin and other illegal drug problems, and the violence that is all too often associated with drug trafficking, which impacts daily the quality of life in our communities.”

The heroin epidemic isn’t just an urban problem, where Detroit Police Chief James Craig said it “plagues our society and dampens the quality of life within our communities.” Suburbs like Royal Oak have seen a spike in heroin overdoses in recent years as well.

The raids are occurring four months after federal agencies linked a drug trafficking pipeline from Michigan to five other Midwest states to a spike in prescription opioid and heroin addiction.

Prosecutors formed an organized crime task force in August to stop the flow of drugs from Michigan into Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia, the Justice Department.

At the time, federal prosecutors said U.S. heroin deaths have tripled from 2010 to 2013. Last year, deaths from all opioids in the Midwest increased by 62 percent, including 43,000 deaths from heroin overdoses, prosecutors said.

In southeast Michigan, authorities have said that 60 people in Wayne and Washtenaw counties have died since the beginning of the year after overdosing on heroin and fentanyl, a powerful opioid legally prescribed as a painkiller. Oakland County authorities say heroin overdoses doubled from 2013 to 2014.