A total of 41 people were arrested recently following a conglomerative effort by local police agencies. The Bluegrass Narcotic Task Force (comprised of members from Harrison County Sheriff’s Office, Cynthiana Police Department, Bourbon County Sheriff’s Office and Paris Police Department) and Kentucky State Police performed a multi-county arrest detail targeting narcotics traffickers operating in Bourbon and Harrison counties.
They reported on social media that this operation was further supported by Kentucky State Police, post 6, detectives from KSP east drug enforcement, and the Carlisle Police Department who provided K-9 support. These charges are the result of numerous investigations conducted by the group of agencies where undercover detectives purchased and/or confiscated heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine and prescription narcotics from suspects throughout the city and county. the task force continues in the post that fentanyl is one of the deadliest drugs and most addictive drugs ever seen. The drug is a powerful synthetic opioid similar to morphine but 50 to 100 times more potent.
The research findings presented in the 2020 KY overdose fatality report, state “more than 1,964 Kentuckians died from drug overdoses in 2020, a 49% increase in drug overdose deaths compared with the year prior.” The report further states, in “cases autopsied by the Kentucky office of the medical examiner and toxicology reports submitted by Kentucky coroners, the increase in the death toll was driven mostly by a rise in opioid abuse, fentanyl and fentanyl analogues, which were found in 1,292 cases, accounting for approximately 71% of all overdose deaths for the year.”
