Drug task force expands with help of federal money

WILLISTON — Officials say a $1.4 million federal grant awarded nearly a year ago is about to start paying dividends for law enforcement in their effort to stem the flow of heroin into the state.

The Department of Justice Anti-Heroin Task Force grant was used to hire five new state troopers who completed their training in June. That allowed the Vermont State Police to make five experienced troopers full-time detectives with the Vermont Drug Task Force, a statewide unit that works with local and federal agencies to combat drug trafficking.

The task force is being expanded at a time when potent synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, are becoming increasingly common in the supply of drugs being sold as heroin in Vermont, driving a spike in overdoses, according to public health officials.

The reinforcements bring the number of task force investigators to 24, from 19, according to state police officials. The grant is also paying for a data analyst to work with the task force.

“The most important asset in doing this work is the drug investigators themselves,” said Maj. Glenn Hall of the state police at a Monday news conference.

The new members of the Vermont Drug Task Force start their work as the scope and scale of the opiate trade is straining the resources of Vermont law enforcement, said state police Col. Matthew Birmingham.

“We are, quite frankly, overwhelmed on the law enforcement end of things with the amount of heroin that’s coming into the state currently,” Birmingham said, adding that heroin investigations are up 70 percent over the same time last year.

At the same time, the Health Department reports that the number of opiate overdoses is increasing in 2016. The daily average number of opiate overdoses reported to emergency responders has increased from 1.2 last year to 2.2 this year, according to Health Commissioner Dr. Harry Chen.

“I think given what happened a couple weekends ago, I’m sure it’s probably higher now,” Chen said, referring to a rash of overdoses attributed to fentanyl in central Vermont.

Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that is frequently cut with other substances and sold as heroin, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. It is 50 times more potent than heroin.

Another synthetic opioid, carfentanil — which is 100 times more potent than fentanyl — is also appearing in the illicit supply of drugs sold as heroin in Vermont, Chen said.

“You can have a very small amount of drug product that can lead to a tremendous number of doses, and unfortunately, a tremendous number of deaths,” Chen said.

Carfentanil is not approved for pharmaceutical use in humans, but it is used commercially as a general anesthetic for large animals. Carfentanil, fentanyl and another drug, sufentanil, can all be made in clandestine home labs — something drug dealers are increasingly turning to in the Northeast, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The substances are so deadly that the DEA advises agents not to field test them, because 2 grams of homemade fentanyl can kill a 200-pound person through the skin, according to John DeLena, the assistant special agent in charge of the region covering Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire. Law enforcement officers have found ventilators and other protective gear at illicit labs in New Hampshire, DeLena told VTDigger in an interview last year.

Hall, with the Vermont State Police, said he was not aware of any clandestine labs found in Vermont that were making synthetic opioids.

Vermont was one of six states to receive a portion of $5.8 million awarded by the Justice Department through its Anti-Heroin Task Force program in 2015. States were selected based on having a high level of drug treatment admissions for opiate abuse and an existing task force structure involving multiple jurisdictions.

The $1.4 million two-year grant will end next year, and Vermont will seek continued funding through the program, officials said.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said a series of Senate Judiciary Committee field hearings held in Vermont and elsewhere led to the creation of the Justice Department’s anti-heroin grant program. Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the committee, expressed confidence that Vermont will continue to receive grant money through the program.

“We will get more money, I guarantee you that,” Leahy said.

A news release from Leahy’s Senate office said he has secured close to $10 million in federal funding for the Vermont Drug Task Force.

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