This article seeks to document the latest danger in the opioid crisis: fentanyl and related synthetic opioids. Fifty times more potent than pure heroin, cheaper to manufacture in laboratories worldwide, and easily distributed by mail and couriers, fentanyl is flooding the illicit opioid markets throughout the country.
C.Rosenberg, Former Acting Administrator, DEA, keynote address of The Opioid Crisis in Connecticut Conference, Yale Law School, September29, 2017 [hereinafter Rosenberg Keynote].
6.
Id.; see also Stop the Importation and Trafficking of Synthetic Analogues Act of 2017 Before the H. Subcomm. on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security & Investigations, 115th Cong. 9 (2017) (statement of Demetra Ashley, Deputy Assistant Administrator, DEA), available at <https://www.dea.gov/pr/speeches-testimony/2017t/062717t.pdf> (last visited April 23, 2018).
Then-United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut Deirdre M. Daly and Assistant United States Attorney Robert M. Spector, interview by authors (October 11, 2017).
Federal Efforts to Combat the Opioid Crisis: A Status Update on CARA and Other Initiatives Before the H. Comm. on Energy & Commerce, 115th Cong. 4 (2017) (statement of Neil D. Doherty, Deputy Assistant Administrator, DEA), available at <https://www.dea.gov/pr/speeches-testimony/2017t/102517t.pdf> (last visited April 25, 2018) [hereinafter Doherty, Federal Efforts to Combat the Opioid Crisis].
18.
J.K.O’Donnellet al., “Deaths Involving Fentanyl, Fentanyl Analogs, and U-47700 — 10 States, July–December 2016,”Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report66 (2017): 1197–1202, available at <https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6643e1.htm> (last visited April 25, 2018).
Doherty, Federal Efforts to Combat the Opioid Crisis, supra note 17, at 3-4.
28.
B. D. Boyle, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the New England Field Division, and P. J. Spera, Group Supervisor, DEA, interview by authors (October 25, 2017) [hereinafter Interview with DEA].
Fentanyl: The Next Wave of the Opioid Crisis Before the H. Subcomm. on Oversight & Investigations, 115th Cong. 5 (2017) (statement of Louise D. Milione, Assistant Administrator, DEA), available at <https://www.dea.gov/pr/speeches-testimony/2017t/032117t.pdf> (last visited April 25, 2018) [hereinafter Milione, The Next Wave of the Opioid Crisis].
34.
“Dark web” opioid dealer Peter Ceplenski, for instance, had shipped fentanyl powder to an individual to press into pills, but the pills Ceplenski received in return contained no controlled substances at all. Another package Ceplenski believed to contain amphetamine pills were actually methamphetamine, and yet another package he ordered—containing what “appeared to be 61 oxycodone tablets”—contained heroin, not oxycodone. USAO-CT, “Essex Man Admits to Using Dark Web to Buy and Sell Drugs,”January8, 2018, available at <https://www.justice.gov/usao-ct/pr/essex-man-admits-using-dark-web-buy-and-sell-drugs> (last visited April 25, 2018); N. Rondinone, “Essex Man Caught With Prescriptions Guilty In Dark Web Drug Probe,” Hartford Courant, January 11, 2018, available at <http://www.courant.com/breaking-news/hc-br-federal-dark-web-drug-plea-essex-20180110-story.html> (last visited April 25, 2018).
Personal communication from AUSA Spector to author (RLR) (November 29, 2017); id. (August 29, 2017); see also Plea Agreement at 10, USA v. Cirino, No. 3:17-cr-00250-JCH (D. Conn. Nov. 16, 2017); “Hamden Man Distributed Fentanyl Disguised as Oxycodone,”New Haven Register, November17, 2017, available at <http://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Hamden-man-distributed-fentanyl-disguised-as-12363856.php> (last visited April 25, 2018).
Schedules of Controlled Substances: Temporary Placement of Fentanyl-Related Substances in Schedule I, 83 Fed. Reg. 5188 (Feb. 6, 2018) (to be codified at 21 C.F.R. pt. 1308), available at <https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/fed_regs/rules/2018/fr0206_4.htm> (last visited April 25, 2018).
A.Rath, “Lethal Opiates Delivered By Mail From China, Killing Addicts In The U.S.,”NPR, March11, 2017, available at <http://www.npr.org/2017/03/11/519649096/can-china-banon-deadly-opioid-save-lives-in-the-u-s> (last visited April 25, 2018). Whether this is even necessary is far from clear. USAOCT sees the USPS as one of its greatest partners, despite the difficulties inherent in tracking small, mislabeled packages arriving by way of various countries. Presentation by AUSA Spector to “Law and the Opioid Crisis” Seminar, Yale Law School, September 18, 2017. See also Popper, supra note 43.
Hearing on Drug Trafficking and Security Standards Used by the U.S. Postal Service and Private Carriers Before the H. Subcomm. on Gov’t Operations, 115th Cong. 3 (2017) (statement of Guy Cottrell, Chief Postal Inspector, United States Postal Inspection Service), available at <https://about.usps.com/news/testimony/2017/pr17_cpi0907.pdf> (last visited April 25, 2018).
68.
USSC Perez Testimony, supra note 61, at 3. Recently, an investigation headed by the USPS and DEA led to a guilty plea by a Connecticut man, who had used the dark web to buy and sell various opioids, supra note 34.
K.Torralva, “Fentanyl Dealers Can Face Life Sentence or Death in Overdose Cases with New Florida Law,”Orlando Sentinel, October6, 2017, available at <http://www.orlandosentinel.com/health/addiction-recovery/os-prosecuting-fentanyl-overdoses-as-murders-20170926-story.html> (last visited April 25, 2018); E. Brico, “I Nearly Died of a Drug Overdose: Would That Make My Dealer a Murderer?” Politico, January 25, 2018, available at <https://www.politico. com/magazine/story/2018/01/25/drug-induced-homicide-laws-former-heroin-addict-216507> (last visited April 25, 2018).
79.
G.Binder, B.Fissell and R.Weisberg, “Capital Punishment of Unintentional Felony Murder,”Notre Dame Law Review92, no. 3 (2017): 1141-1214.
