PITTSBURGH — Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday announced that 50 million doses of fentanyl have been taken off the streets this year, 18 million of those are from the Greater Pittsburgh area. He has a strong message for any dealers who are trying to sell fentanyl in the state.
Sunday said, “To those dealers who value a dollar over human lives, we say your time will come and you will be held fully accountable for the death and destruction you’ve caused.”
For Dave Sunday fighting the flow of fentanyl into Pennsylvania is paramount.
“It enters the United States from production in Mexico with chemicals that are sourced to China and it is trafficked into and through Pennsylvania via the major interstates and highway corridors,” Sunday explained.
Monday, he joined local law enforcement officers and county officials to discuss the deadly drug and what’s being done to combat it.
Chief Matt Preininger with the Stowe Township Police Department said, “Thank you for giving us the tools to try and keep the Stowe Rox community safe. We have an issue with fentanyl coming into our towns.”
“We have very highly trained, experienced investigators out here in Western Pa and so they know how to do it, they know how to find it,” Sunday added.
Richard Goldinger, Butler County District Attorney, said, “It’s been the trend across the entire state that heroin was the problem, fentanyl’s replaced it.”
Sunday highlighted the arrest of Shakeirs Foster, a 27-year-old from Allegheny County,, charged with extorting an Oakdale teenager in May of 2024.
“The defendant used fentanyl to exploit a 14-year-old Allegheny County girl for sexual contact and that fentanyl ultimately killed her,” Sunday explained.
The state’s combined efforts against fentanyl appear to be working, with 76-thousand pills seized statewide and 18 million doses of the drug taken off the greater Pittsburgh area streets.
Commander Stephen Vinansky with the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police said, “Almost every day somewhere in the city of Pittsburgh and a lot of time it’s our officers seeing the drugs themselves, sometimes it’s seeing an overdose and unfortunately, many times we’ll get a fatal overdose.”
Sunday says he expects to expand the Law Enforcement Treatment Initiative of LETI where Attorney General officers train local law enforcement. It’s used to divert criminals out of the justice system and into treatment.
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