Riverside County Carves New Path In Southern California
LAPPL News Watch
March 9, 2021
Struggling
to contain an 800% increase in fentanyl-related deaths in the past four
years, Riverside County has joined a trend building elsewhere to pursue
murder charges against those believed responsible for fatal overdoses.
In the past two weeks, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office
has charged three men with murder for supplying the cheap synthetic
opiate to unwitting drug users. A fourth man was arrested Friday, March
5, on suspicion of murder in connection with a fatal overdose, but his
case has not yet been presented to the district attorney.
District
Attorney Mike Hestrin said the proliferation of fentanyl on Riverside
County streets and the staggering increase in deaths are driving his
aggressive crackdown on alleged drug distributors. “In the last five
years, the number of fentanyl deaths has doubled every year. We’re
trying to get ahead of this wave of poisonings,” Hestrin said, noting
there were 25 fentanyl-related fatal overdoses in 2017, 55 in 2018, 117
in 2019 and 227 last year.
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