IOWA: Marion Police said “blue drop” heroin has led to dozens of overdoses, even deaths in recent weeks.
Now they believe they’ve cut it off at its source.
It started two weeks ago when Marion Mayor Scott Schertzer asked for state and federal authorities’ help.
“This is a national epidemic. Where are the feds? This is a statewide problem. Where is the state?” he said.
The next day, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine told media he was sending two agents to the area.
With state and federal manpower, police arrested the man they call the major supplier of the deadly strain Wednesday.
Bobbi Blanton knows firsthand the vicious hold of heroin.
“I’ll never ever touch that again,” she said. “Never.”
Her sobriety comes at a steep price: it was the loss of her daughter three weeks ago that she says finally woke her up.
“We talked to her at 11:30 that night. She was fine. Two o’clock in the morning, they’re beating on my door that my child overdosed,” Blanton said. “They didn’t tell me that she died until I got to the hospital and saw the chaplain.”
Bailey Witzel was just 19, a mother herself. And like her mother, an addict.
“Mom, I’m dealing with the devil. The devil drug,” Blanton remembers her saying.
Witzel had plans of getting clean and going to college.
Blanton said it all ended May 21, with a hit of “blue drop” heroin.
“I miss her every day. And this has to stop in this town. I lost something precious. She wasn’t only my child. That was my best friend,” she said.
Tragically, Witzel’s family is far from alone.
“Since April 15, Marion has experienced a total of 56 heroin related overdoses, resulting in five deaths,” Marion Police Chief Bill Collins said.
Marion Police blame the spike on the introduction of “blue drop” heroin, laced with the powerful painkiller fentanyl.
A team of dozens of state, federal, and local agents and officers, they raided three Marion homes, seized a kilo of heroin and stacks of cash, and arrested 32-year-old Eric Creagh.
“He is our head supplier in Marion for the ‘blue drop’ heroin,” Collins said.
They will have to wait for toxicology tests to be able to definitively link the overdoses and deaths to Creagh’s product.
“However, we can say that what we recovered today, with the blue dye and everything else that was located today, is the same as what we have gotten in the past,” Collins said.
They say the surge in support from state and federal agents made the difference. And the feds promise that’s going to continue.
“That one hand that was tied behind our back 14 days ago, we’re working with two hands now,” Schertzer said. “And when we have partners like this, working on illegal drugs in our community we’re going to make a significant impact.”
Blanton hopes it will stop those poisoning this community for profit.
“They have no morals. They have no sympathy. As long as they’re making their money, that’s all they care about is making money,” she said.
Creagh is being charged federally with felony possession with intent to distribute, along with weapons charges.
The Marion County Prosecutor says if toxicology tests link his product to a fatal overdose, Creagh could be charged in those deaths.
