County seeing increase in pills laced with fentanyl

“The increase in pills is what’s concerning,” Bodenbender said.

The Henry County Sheriff’s Office has a deputy, Scott Sauer, assigned to the Multi-Area Narcotics (MAN) Unit, which has been serving northwest Ohio for 30 years and is made up of officers from six counties in the area.

“They’re buying pills and they don’t know what they are,” Sauer explained. “They think they’re buying Percocet, but it’s not Percocet, it’s laced with fentanyl.

“People are making these things at home, and they don’t have the control that pharmaceutical companies do,” Sauer continued. “They might have a little bit of fentanyl in one pill and way too much fentanyl in the next pill. They have no way to control it. One person may survive, and the other person just might not make it.”

Sauer explained that fentanyl, which is a synthetic of heroin, can have medicinal uses for relieving pain.

“Heroin is associated with morphine, and fentanyl is 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin and it’s cheaper,” Sauer said.

Bodenbender added Henry County was leading area counties in overdose deaths for a few years, although they are lower this year.

“It was disturbing to see that,” he said.

Sauer said he has handled two drug overdoses in the county so far this year, not including overdose deaths that occurred in the City of Napoleon. Of those overdoses, one involved cocaine and fentanyl and the other involved a large amount of methamphetamine.

Most of the drugs coming into Henry County are believed to be entering the county from Toledo, according to Bodenbender, as well as some from Lima and Fort Wayne.

“(U.S. Route) 24 is a huge route for that,” Sauer added.

In addition to calls and investigations related directly to drug abuse, a majority of the calls the sheriff’s office responds to can be indirectly linked to drug abuse as well.

“It branches out into thefts, burglaries, break-ins ... for them to get the money to buy drugs and support their habits,” Bodenbender said. “(We) figured out about 80% of all of our crimes are drug or alcohol related.”

In an effort to combat drug abuse, Bodenbender said the sheriff’s office joined the MAN Unit nine years ago, and implemented a K-9 program with the first K-9 joining in 2013 and a second starting in 2016.

“They’re a very, very valuable tool,” Bodenbender said, adding the two K-9s will soon be nearing retirement due to their ages and the office will be looking to replace them soon.

The county also re-instituted the DARE Program in the county schools in 2016 after a lapse in the program since 2002. The program shifted with the transition of the DARE officer into a school resource officer position, but he continued to handle the programming in the county schools while the city picked up Napoleon’s DARE Program with its school resource officer position. Bodenbender noted the county’s DARE officer recently left law enforcement, so the program’s transitioning now.

“We’re going to have a year lapse in there that we’re not going to have someone and then we’re going to bring it back,” Bodenbender said, adding it’s difficult to find open trainings session in the state right now.

Overall, Bodenbender said the sheriff’s office, the city police department and the MAN Unit all work well together.

“The MAN Unit does a great job,” he said. “We’re fortunate to have the cooperation with ... the cities, the counties because it doesn’t stop at the county line, it doesn’t stop at the city limits. It crosses over, so the cooperation is amazing between the departments and the agents.”

Bodenbender added the public can help combat drug abuse by reporting when they see something suspicious.

“If you see something, call,” he said, adding tips can be made anonymously. “If it doesn’t pan out, it doesn’t pan out. We always need the public’s help.”