DEA: Fentanyl use, distribution linked to widespread violent crime in Minneapolis

Minneapolis Police Department data shows areas with the most shooting calls also had high volumes of fentanyl being recovered by law enforcement.

“We have to bring focus and awareness to what’s happening. We don’t want to lose anyone else to this,” Bishop Richard Howell, Shiloh Temple International Ministries, said.

Howell said he’s seen too many caskets come in and out of his church this summer.

“We’re tired. We’re burnt out by death,” he said.

He said the deaths often happen at the hands of drugs and violence.

“I do believe if we get rid of the fentanyl, we’ll probably see a decrease in our violence,” he said.

Shiloh Temple is a Narcan site.

Howell said on the streets of Minneapolis, he sees people in high crime areas using fentanyl and sometimes the consequences are deadly.

“It happens right in the community where they are hovered under a blanket, under a sheet and of course they want to inhale the vapors and not realizing they’re killing themselves,” he said.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials explained it’s a trend they’ve seen for years.

“DEA continues to see a rise in the trafficking of fentanyl and the rise of violent crime is an association of that,” Angela Von Trytek, Drug Enforcement Administration official, said.

Von Trytek is the assistant special agent in charge in the Twin Cities DEA office.

She said when the agency arrests major violent offenders, they often have one thing in common.

“When they’ve been arrested for violent crimes, there’s always either fentanyl or methamphetamine present at the time of the arrest either in the vehicle, in the residence or on their person,” she said.

Fentanyl is an ongoing epidemic across the country.

Von Trytek said it’s cheap to produce, but taking the drug could cost you.

She explained drugs often throw off the ability to rationalize and it leads to more gun crimes.

“Many people under the influence or that are self medicating with illicit drugs are in the passion or the heat of the moment and they sometimes don’t realize what it is that they’ve done before it’s obviously too late,” she said. “It absolutely makes it easier to pull the trigger.”

Von Trytek said fentanyl is a common denominator in many crimes in Minneapolis and taking it out the equation by getting it off the streets could make communities safer.

“We believe that if we can really tackle the influx of the drug problem that’s coming into the United States, it will decrease the violent crime,” Von Trytek said.

This drug problem goes beyond the Twin Cities.

DEA officials said they are making a lot of progress with targeting high level drug traffickers across the U.S.

Some of that information is confidential at this time, but the agency plans to release updates to the public in the coming months.