Fentanyl, from the Southwest border into Wicomico County

WICOMICO COUNTY, Md. – With Fentanyl being found more and more in Wicomico county, it’s raising the question as to where the drugs are coming from and how they are finding their way to the Eastern Shore.

In Wicomico County, there have been fifteen lives lost this year alone because of drug overdoses, and eighty percent of those fatal drug overdoses were fentanyl related.

Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis says it’s being smuggled over the Texan border from Mexico and ending up here in Maryland. Deputies even recently seized a significant quantity of fentanyl, as described by police.

“A large amount of Fentanyl that was seized here in the county by Wicomico County Sheriff deputies executing a search warrant on a house based on a significant number of overdoses we believe are related to this particular batch of Fentanyl.”

This has led to an increase of fentanyl on the Eastern Shore that law enforcement believes to be tied to drug cartels. 

“What is being smuggled across the southwest border today, will be in our back yard tomorrow, that is a fact. They travel 24 hours a day, seven days a week, bringing enormous amounts of drugs into our county.”

This drug smuggling, specifically fentanyl, has been helping fuel the opioid epidemic in Wicomico County, Maryland and across America. 

“There has been an enormous amount of fentanyl seizures across the United States.”

The Wicomico County Health Department says most of the illicit opioids found on the street, like heroin, are not even pure anymore.

Wicomico County Opioid Coordinator Christiana Bowie-Simpson says, “A lot of people will say heroin, right, a lot of it is not even heroin anymore. It is fentanyl mixed with other adulterants.”

She says is not just impacting opioid users in the county, but all recreational drug users.

“Fentanyl is being found in a lot of other illicit street substances like cocaine, pills, counterfeit pills so its really never been more of a dangerous time.”

“If you are using a drug of any kind at this point in time, you are at risk of a fentanyl overdose.”