By Jondi Gumz
On May 29, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Fentanyl Crisis Response Team conducted an operation that led to the arrest of a drug dealer on the 100 block of Coral Street in Santa Cruz, according to a press release.
This location is near shelters for homeless individuals, a future site for services and a future site for 120 rental units with support for people who are chronically homeless.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart
The Sheriff’s Office said an undercover detective bought fentanyl from Brandon Mahone, 39, no address given.
Mahone was arrested for narcotics sales and a probation hold was placed on him.
Last year, fentanyl, a deadly synthetic drug that is cheap to make, took the lives of 133 people in Santa Cruz County, prompting Sheriff Jim Hart to create this new team.
Just 2 milligrams of fentanyl — a few grains smaller than a penny — can be lethal, and illegal manufacturers often disguise pills to look like Xanax or oxycodone M30.
In fake pills, 7 out of 10 are potentially fatal, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, based on pills seized from dealers.
One sad fatality this year: A 19-year-old freshman, the son of a tech star found dead in his dorm room, the autopsy finding fentanyl.
In announcing this effort in May on Instagram, Hart said, “It is a crisis.”
He noted last year’s deaths from traffic crashes, suicides, homicides totaled 66 — so the fentanyl fatalities are twice as many
His office is partnering with schools and the Santa Cruz County Office of Education to “prevent that first use,” and with Janus of Santa Cruz, which offers addiction treatment.
He’s doubled the size of his narcotic enforcement team, which includes a drug detection canine, and got agreement from federal prosecutors in cases where law enforcement can prove a drug dealer dealt fentanyl to someone who overdosed and died, they will prosecute those cases as homicides or manslaughter.
“We have to work together as a team,” Hart said.
“Over the past several months, the Fentanyl Crisis Response Team has seized over 500 grams of fentanyl,” the press release says. “We are working directly with local and federal prosecutors to hold the individuals dealing this poison to our community accountable.”
Lt. Billy Burnett, who heads the team, says all fentanyl overdose death cases are being investigated as potential homicides.
“These people are literally supplying a product that is killing people and profiting from it,” he said.
The Instagram video can be viewed at www.instagram.com/santacruzcountyso/reel/C6odDqnoZx5/