Inside Drug Enforcement Agency evidence lab tracking dangerous, deadly new street drug
NEW YORK (WABC) -- There's a new street drug that is proving to be deadly and Eyewitness News got an inside look at the lab where agents are making it a top priority.
"The leading cause of death among Americans 18 to 45 is drug overdoses and poisonings," said Frank Tarentino, NY DEA Special Agent in Charge.
Tarentino says fentanyl continues to be the most common deadly substance. He says less than a pinch, an example Eyewitness News saw in a vial, just 2 milligrams, could take a life.
"This is the Northeast Regional Laboratory," he said. "It covers the entire northeast for the DEA."
Tarentino gave Eyewitness News a tour of one of the nine U.S. evidence labs run by the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency.
"Over here, we have various types of club drugs," he said on the tour.
This lab is made up of 30 chemists and technicians, like Senior Forensic Chemist Mikayla Romanelli.
She was using a machine to identify the drug and see if it was laced with others.
"It takes that individual component and it breaks it up into small pieces. So, it eventually comes together looking like a bunch of lines here," she said. "However, that would be essentially what is the fingerprint of that individual substance."
Romanelli was testing one of the latest street drugs called Bromazolam.
"It's a class of drugs that has a sedative, hypnotic, muscle relaxing, anxiety reducing effect," Tarentino said.
He says the pills are purchased illegally online, mostly by teens and young adults through social media or a fake pharmacy.
They are disguised as a bogus Xanax pill, often broken down to powder, and laced with fentanyl, car fentanyl, and xylazine.
"When people overdose from a mixture of Bromazolam and fentanyl, the Narcan will work on the fentanyl, but not on the Bromazolam, so there is an increased risk of overdose death and/or serious harm," he said.
The most recent bust of Bromazolam in New York City was in February.
"One really significant seizure in Long Island City, where this is 3.4 million fake pills," Tarentino said.
Boxes Eyewitness News was shown contained 850,000 pills confiscated alone from Long Island City.
"We seized enough drugs this year alone in powder and pills to kill the entire state of, the population of, New York and New Jersey," he said.
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