Jennifer Keiper, WLS-AM 890 News
(CHICAGO) Dozens of gang members on Chicago’s West Side are now facing charges of selling fentanyl-laced heroin.
The Eisenhower Expressway has become known, by some, as the “Heroin Highway” with people exiting, buying drugs and then getting right back on the Ike a block or two away.
Sixty-five people have been arrested for selling drugs, including heroin-laced fentanyl, 18 of them in federal court.
U.S. Attorney Zach Fardon says of the 3.8 kilograms of heroin recovered, 148 grams were laced with fentanyl.
“Two milligrams of fentanyl can be fatal. To put it in perspective, when you’re at the restaurant and there’s a sugar packet on your table that your kid is playing with that’s a thousand milligrams. Two milligrams of fentanyl can be fatal. So, lacing any heroin with fentanyl is a very, very dangerous proposition,” said Fardon.
While deaths in Chicago and across the country have been linked to fentanyl-laced heroin, Fardon says there are no death charges in the latest complaints.
Various drugs, as well as guns and cash, have been seized as part of the 2-year long “Operation Sweet Dreams.”
