The War on Heroin: St Lucie County Sheriff's Office Special Investigation Unit

Street level dealers risk their freedom for it. Addicts call it the good stuff.

The new heroin strengthened with fentanyl, for a stronger faster high, is also more lethal than ever.

CBS 12’s Town Hall on the heroin epidemic focuses in on the overdose epidemic from heroin. Tonight we discuss the deaths, the crackdown and new laws needed to fight the problem.

We go along with St Lucie County’s Special Operations Unit who is tracking down the dealers selling the drug responsible for the deaths of more than 1,000 people in our area.

"A few years ago, if we came across a couple caplets of heroin, that was a big deal," Lt. Brian Hester, with the St. Lucie Co. Sheriff’s Office, Special Investigations Unit, who first stopped the painkiller craze back in 2008, only to see opioids used again in the new drug of choice, heroin.

"The diversion to stop OxyContin worked, but did we really solve the problem? And that's that these people were addicted to an opioid. Those addictions aren't just cured overnight because we stopped the flow of pills- these are physical and mental addictions," Hester said, “if somebody sells heroin. And somebody OD’s from that heroin, everybody flocks to buy it because they know it's the good stuff."

Lt. Hester is fighting the heroin overdose epidemic, along with his dozen member team who suit up to serve warrants on street level dealers.

But Lt. Hester says they cannot arrest their way out of the heroin problem.

The sheriff’s office new approach to fighting the epidemic means targeting addicts--but not for criminal charges, for intelligence.

Detectives now respond with EMS to the reported overdoses, 386 of them by the fall of 2016 in St. Lucie County.

"Our goal is to stop the inflow of that drug into our community," Hester said.

By questioning the addicts who survive an overdose, they can trace the heroin from the user to the dealer to the supplier. And, it’s working.

From September through December 2016, that intelligence showed nearly half of all heroin overdoses were coming from one supplier. Fort Pierce Police arrested Henry Mondesir, who admitted to mixing fentanyl with heroin in reports.

"He mixed his heroin with fentanyl, which was causing a lot of his overdoses, and he was bragging about the fact that his heroin was causing those overdoses., Lt. Hester said.

After his arrest, overdoses dropped. But within a month, new overdoses spiked back up again.

"We try to gather some intelligence- from family members, from anyone on scene there." Hester said.

SIU Intel this week from an overdose questioning lead them to 56 year-old Larry Ciaccio, charged now with drug trafficking for selling heroin out of his home, mixed with fentanyl.

Investigators say 30 more overdoses could be linked to Ciaccio’s heroin in 2017.

But there’s more than can be gleamed from talking to addicts.

"I've been asking permission to ask them these questions- they can stop at any time. I ask what go them started? Was it a legitimate accident they had?" Hester said, who was surprised that 45% of addicts began with a legitimate prescription they could not wean off of.

The typical overdose death are 80% white males ages 20-35 years old.

"I ask them if they'd ever Od'd before? If they've ever been to rehab before?" Hester said, all of them have, "every one of them has been to rehab- some multiple times."

"I ask How much do they use a day? How do they pay for it? Do they know anyone that has died from an overdose? Interestingly they all do." Hester added, noting this drug addict cannot “just say no, "They don't wake up one day and say I am going to quit. It takes medical help to get them to quit because they become physically sick, some can even die without being weaned off the opioids they are addicted to."

"Sometimes, honestly an arrest may save their life." Hester said, "we needed to do more than just the normal enforcement that we did."

Recent deaths of users in public places:

Lt. Hester: "If there was a heroin deal went on in that area and they went into that bathroom- they don't want to wait 'til they get home- they want to get it right them and there."

How do they pay for it?

Lt. Hester: "I’ve talked to some of them who are on social security. They use every dime of their social security- to buy heroin? To buy heroin."

How were St Lucie County Deputies able to access overdose victims in the field?

Lt. Hester: "We received a grant to equip all our deputies with NARCAN, so now our deputies have the capability to arrive on scene and if they arrive before EMS is there, we have to ability to administer the Narcan ourselves. We started sending our detectives out with those calls and we try to gather some intelligence- from family members, from anyone on scene there."

Where are dealers getting the fentanyl?

Lt. Hester: "if you have access to the dark web and bitcoin you can order Fentanyl delivered straight to your door step. The suppliers are mixing fentanyl with the heroin, in doing so it makes it quicker acting a little harder acting.”

Why do addicts choose heroin?

Lt. Hester: "(oxy) Generally those sell for 50-80 a pill, so if I can go buy a caplet of heroin and get 2 hits out of that, it’s much cheaper."