RALEIGH – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina, along with the Wake County District Attorney’s Office, hosted a conference today to provide patrol officers, investigators, first responders and narcotics and homicide detectives information regarding safety measures and investigative techniques necessary for working opioid and synthetic drug cases. Representatives of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Office of North Carolina’s Chief Medical Examiner provided critical information regarding safety measures and evidence gathering and investigative techniques.
United States Attorney Robert J. Higdon, Jr. welcomed conference participants with the following remarks:
“I wanted to be here with you this morning to open this important training conference because North Carolina is literally at the center of the opioid and synthetic crisis gripping our nation. This crisis affects all of us. In 2015 more than 52,000 Americans lost their lives to drug overdose. And the numbers we have for 2016 show another increase – a big increase. Based on preliminary data, nearly 60,000 Americans lost their lives to drug overdoses last year. This crisis is being driven primarily by opioids-prescription drugs, heroin and synthetic drugs like fentanyl.
Here in North Carolina we have seen an alarming increase in opioid related deaths. In 2015 more than 1100 of our people lost their lives from opioid abuse – 1100 of our friends, neighbors, fellow North Carolinians. More than three per day.
Across our communities we’re seeing more availability, higher purity, and lower prices. As you know, drugs like heroin and cocaine are being laced with drugs like fentanyl – a substance 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin. As a result, the drugs on the street are now more powerful, more addictive, and more dangerous than ever before. And they are not just dangerous for users; even being accidentally exposed to just a few grains of fentanyl can kill a police officer or paramedic.
Today’s conference is designed to provide you with information and best practices about the safety measures you need to take as you investigate opioid and synthetic cases. And, we hope, it will help you continue to hone your investigative skills as you collect evidence and prepare cases for prosecution – the prosecution of the traffickers who are pumping this poison into our communities.
To confront a crisis on this scale, we must take a comprehensive approach that includes prevention, enforcement and treatment. You are on the front lines of our enforcement effort. And as you investigate these cases, we want you to have every tool available to stay safe and to investigate these critical cases so that traffickers can be successfully prosecuted.
We in the United States Attorney’s Office stand behind you and we are prepared to prosecute opioid traffickers across the Eastern District of North Carolina. Congress has given us many tools to help stem the tide of deadly opioids in our communities.
We will aggressively use mandatory minimum sentencing, stiff sentences for heroin and other Schedule I or II drugs, and enhanced sentences available where death or serious bodily injury occurs. And where drug traffickers have been previously convicted of a felony drug offense, we will pursue the substantial enhanced sentences available under federal law.
Today’s training is one-step toward strengthening our collaboration and communication. And I am very pleased that we are able to partner with Lorrin Freeman and her very fine staff at the Wake County District Attorney’s Office. I know they share our deep commitment to fighting the problems in a comprehensive and aggressive way. And I know she shares our commitment to the safety and effectiveness of dedicated investigators and first responders like each of you.
As one who lives and works and who is raising a family here in Wake County, I thank you for the work you do every day to protect me, my wife and my two sons. Thank you for your dedication and for the sacrifices you make for each of us. And thank you for being here today and for your commitment to this important work. I hope and trust that the information that is shared today will help you stay safe and do your job more efficiently. I look forward to working closely with you to protect our communities from the opioid and synthetic crisis.”
About Author
