Two people have been arrested in connection with smoking crack cocaine laced with fentanyl that caused the deaths of three people in Coram on Friday, Suffolk County police said Saturday afternoon.
The dead were described as a 39-year-old man, a 24-year-old man and a 58-year-old man, Suffolk police said at a news briefing at the department’s Yaphank headquarters. They said another victim, described only as a woman, was in critical condition.
Suffolk police said they believed the four victims thought they were smoking regular crack cocaine and were not known opioid users, but they were actually smoking crack laced with a heavy dose of fentanyl. Suffolk Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina called the drug being used “one of the further complicating factors” of the case.
“The people who ingested these drugs were not opioid users. They were crack cocaine users,” Catalina said. “Their tolerance for this was not what somebody who had an opioid addiction would be. So, it makes it even more dangerous for them.”
Police said they found 20 grams of powdered fentanyl and a gun when executing warrants that led to the two arrests at two different Coram properties. That quantity of fentanyl is equivalent to roughly 10,000 fatal doses, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Police did not identify the two people arrested and did not disclose what the charges are or that might be pending.
“We feel that there is a connection between the two individuals under arrest and the overdose deaths, but that’s still under investigation,” said Catalina, who confirmed both suspects “are known to police.”
Suffolk police had issued a warning Friday evening about “a bad batch of narcotics” in Coram.
The Suffolk police Medical Crisis Action Team, or MedCAT, which has training in “advanced life support,” and other extra resources have been deployed in the impacted community, a police release said on Friday.
On Saturday, Catalina said “there is a possibility that there is still some of that dangerous substance out there.”
“We want everybody to use extra precautions,” the commissioner said. “If you know somebody who uses narcotics, please let them know that they could potentially be in danger if they ingest anything that’s out there on the streets right now.”
Detectives with the Homicide Section and the Narcotics Section are investigating both the source of the narcotics and the deaths they have caused, Suffolk police said.
Catalina said the department was still “actively investigating” the overdoses as of Saturday afternoon.
“Anyone who has information on that, you can call Suffolk County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS,” he said.
Check back for updates on this developing story.
By Sam Kmack and Nicholas Grasso