Chicago PD cracking down on dealers of painkiller blamed in heroin overdoses

CHICAGO (AP) – Chicago police have arrested more than two-dozen people in connection with sales of heroin laced with the painkiller fentanyl, which is being blamed for a sharp increase in overdose deaths.

A series of raids took place throughout the day Thursday and had led to 25 arrests by late that night. The arrests followed a series of undercover drug purchases of heroin laced with fentanyl.

Fentanyl is mixed with heroin to make the drug more potent. Dozens of people have fatally overdosed on fentanyl-laced heroin in the Chicago area in the past year and a half.