The Problem
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported a 56% increase in deaths among people experiencing homelessness between 2019 and 2021. But the primary driver wasn’t COVID, it was overdoses, mainly involving the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
Overdose deaths rose by 78% during that same period among homeless individuals throughout the county.
But the phenomenon isn’t unique to Los Angeles.
Homeless deaths doubled in San Francisco during the pandemics' first year, but no deaths, yes, zero deaths among those experiencing homelessness were directly attributed to COVID-19.
Instead, 82% were associated with drug overdoses, predominantly from fentanyl. For comparison, just 6% died of traumatic injury, such as homicide or suicide, 5% died of chronic conditions, 3% died of complications related to chronic alcohol use, and 2% of other causes.
Let’s head to Seattle.
As of June, 96 people experiencing homelessness died in King County, the third highest urban area homeless population in the country. The number is set to surpass the all-time high mortality rate of 195 homeless deaths set in 2018. The Seattle Times added “It’s also likely an undercount, as the medical examiner investigates less than a fifth of deaths in the county, and misses anyone who died in a hospital.”
The leading cause of death? Fentanyl.
In New York City, homeless deaths inside shelters reached a new high in the second half of 2021. A record 632 overdoses were recorded in the six months between July 1 and Dec. 31, almost double those that occurred two years prior during the same period. The press outlet City Limits cited the cause as “a spike in overdoses and drug-related deaths fueled mainly by fentanyl-laced opioids.”
San Diego reported an increase in homeless deaths in 2021, with a midyear report showing a 149% increase in deaths from fentanyl alone.
The same is happening throughout the cities of Portland, Oakland, San Jose, Phoenix and Boston, where fentanyl is killing record numbers of unhoused individuals.
The excessive death counts are made possible by the small amount of fentanyl it takes to trigger an overdose. The DEA reports that just 0.002 grams of the synthetic opioid is enough to cause an overdose, equivalent to a few grains of salt.
The tiny amount needed for a lethal dose makes it easy to cut the drug into other substances, going nearly undetected in counterfeit pills as well as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines and pressed pills that resemble other prescription opioids. The DEA stated the drug is roughly 50-100 times more powerful than morphine.
Solutions?
Ecomodernist, journalist and California gubernatorial candidate Michael Shellenberger published a controversial book in 2021 titled “San Fransicko,” which detailed his experiences connecting drug addiction with homelessness throughout California, specifically San Francisco’s Tenderloin district.
His controversial opinions centered around the idea that most unsheltered individuals on the streets were either addicted to drugs, mentally ill, or both. His solutions included offering shelters and beds, providing housing contingent on participation in drug rehabs, and mental-health treatment provided by Cal-Psych, his proposed statewide mental health and drug treatment system.
But some experts disagree, offering alternative options like permanent supportive housing regardless of circumstances and social connected services like childcare and transportation. Gregg Colburn, University of Washington’s housing-policy professor, believes drug use is often the result of homelessness, not the cause.
But regardless of the cause or context, there is agreement between both sides that housing is necessary and prevention is key, along with a solemn acknowledgement that drug use is rampant within homeless communities. More frequently, those drugs are found to be laced with fentanyl, contributing to the record number of deaths we’re seeing across the nation.
So where is the fentanyl coming from? The answer is complicated and raises more questions.
How It Gets Here
The DEA unclassified an intelligence report in January 2020 that found China was the primary source of all fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the U.S.
But it’s not just fentanyl they’re exporting. A report from the U.S. Finance Committee estimates 80% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) used to make drugs in the U.S. come from China, signaling a strong relationship and dependence regarding the exchange of substances between countries.
In May 2019, President Xi announced at the G-20 Summit new measures that would be taken to fight the exportation of fentanyl. This included investigating known fentanyl manufacturing areas, providing stricter regulations of internet sites advertising the substance, and the forming of a task force to investigate leads on fentanyl trafficking.
A proposed Fentanyl Sanctions Act from the 2019-2020 congressional session added that substances from China “are shipped primarily through express consignment carriers, international mail or by other means directly to the United States, or, alternatively, shipped directly to transnational criminal organizations in Mexico,” adding “some officials estimate that China is responsible for over 90 percent of the illicit fentanyl found in the U.S.”
The DEA report cites Mexico as the second-largest fentanyl distributor to the U.S., stating they are working with Mexican law enforcement officials to crack down on clandestine labs and distribution centers.
The report added the Sinaloa and New Generation Jalisco cartels are the primary trafficking groups responsible for smuggling fentanyl into the U.S.
But cooperation between the Sinaloa cartel and the DEA, ATF and other federal agencies brings up an uncomfortable past in regards to “Operation Fast and Furious” which took place between 2009 - 2011.
Operation Fast and Furious - Sinaloa Cartel
Operation Fast and Furious was a collaboration between the ATF, the Department of Justice, CIA, DEA and other intelligence agencies, operating under “Project Gunrunner,” which allowed the federal agencies to carry out the illegal sales of guns in Mexico to ‘track the sellers and purchasers.’ Many of those purchasing were assumed to be members of Mexican drug cartels, primarily Sinaloa.
But the operation got out of hand in 2010 when two of the AK-47s sold to cartel groups by U.S. agencies were recovered and connected to the killing of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in the Arizona desert.
Whistleblowing from individuals involved in the operation led to investigations by the Senate Judiciary Committee and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, resulting in the on-record admission that an estimated 1,700 weapons were “lost” by the ATF during the operation.
The ATF’s acting director Kenneth Melson resigned as a result of the investigation, as did Deputy Director William Hoover and Attorney General Eric Holder, who was also cited for contempt of congress for failing to release documents. By the end of the investigation, over 65,000 pages of Operation Fast and Furious documents were released.
Among the pages were wide-ranging claims that led to further investigations by press outlets including the Washington Times, which cited an unnamed CIA source that “U.S. officials were actively aiding organizations such as the Sinaloa cartel with guns and immunity in an effort to stymie Los Zetas.”
According to the article and its unnamed source, Los Zetas was seen as a powerful criminal syndicate with the potential to overthrow the government of Mexico.
Providing weapons for a rebellion to stymie a potential political takeover and ultimately having it backfire? Sounds a bit like our foreign policy related to regime changes in Syria. Or Iraq. Or Nicaragua, Libya, Paraguay, Panama, Poland and Haiti to name just a few.
One of Sinaloa’s lead traffickers in the early 2000’s was Jesus Zambada Niebla. Niebla was arrested in 2009 and almost immediately claimed he was working for the U.S. DEA during his days as a trafficker, stating he was promised immunity. He invoked a “public authority” defense, essentially arguing that since he was working for the U.S. Government under an agreement, he could not be prosecuted.
The agreement reportedly began under an arrangement with American officials through Mexican attorney and Sinaloa-Cartel figure Humberto Loya-Castro sometime before 2004.
His motion, substantiated by the Operation Fast and Furious documents, stated “It is clear that some of the weapons were deliberately allowed by the FBI and other government representatives to end up in the hands of the Sinaloa Cartel.”
He was eventually granted a reduced sentence in 2019 and his sanctions were lifted in 2021.
Further claims of cooperation between major Mexican drug traffickers and U.S. federal agencies were included in a 2012 article from Al Jazeera, which cited a spokesperson from the Chihuahua state government, Guillermo Terrazas Willanueva. Willanueva claimed the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and other international security forces “don’t fight drug traffickers,” but instead “try to manage the drug trade.”
Other officials denied the accusations, pointing instead to the fact that U.S. Congress had approved more than $1.4 billion in drug war aid for Mexico through helicopters, weapons, and training.
But federal agencies have a history of illegal drug distribution outside of Sinaloa. And some of these instances include the direct distribution of substances to minority communities, outlined by the infamous Iran-Contra.
Iran-Contra - the Crack Epidemic
In 1996, the San Jose Mercury News published Dark Alliance by Gary Webb, a controversial investigative series of reports linking CIA missions in Nicaragua with the explosion of the crack cocaine epidemic in predominantly black communities throughout the U.S.
The series claimed that in order to fund Contra rebels fighting Nicaragua’s socialist government, the CIA partnered with Colombian cartels to move drugs into Los Angeles, sending the profits back to Central America to fund the fight.
It connected key San Francisco Bay-area drug rings headed by Danilo Blandon and Norwin Meneses, two men with close ties to a CIA-sponsored Nicaraguan contra group known as the FDN, to the selling of several tons of cocaine to notorious dealer Freeway Rick Ross.
Ross was known to have thousands of employees operating drug sales across the U.S. in predominantly black communities in Los Angeles, St. Louis, New Orleans, Texas, Kansas City, Oklahoma, Cincinnati, North and South Carolina, Baltimore, Cleveland and Seattle, among other places.
Webb’s investigative reporting connected Ross with the CIA’s effort to finance Contras, a partnership that provided Ross with a notable level of protection. Following one arrest in 1982, Los Angeles County Sheriff John Edner stated Ross’s men had “better equipment than we have.”
Even U.S. Senator John Kerry stated in response to the investigative series, “There is no question in my mind that people affiliated with, or on the payroll of, the CIA were involved in drug trafficking.”
Kerry’s investigation into the Reagan & Bush administration resulted in Oliver North destroying pertinent documents in November 1986 related to the scandal, leading to 16 indictments and convictions against North, including accepting an illegal gratuity, obstruction of a Congressional inquiry, and destruction of documents.
Twelve other individuals tied to the Reagan & Bush administration were also indicted in connection to the scandal.
All to say, our agencies have knowingly distributed harmful substances to specific communities with nefarious intent before.
But every scandal has its leaks, and sometimes those leaks lead to bigger questions. For fentanyl, it might be the amount of police and drug enforcement officers who have been arrested for distributing the synthetic opioid themselves on the streets.
Caught Cops
In September of 2021, two police officers with the Columbus Police Drug Cartel unit were arrested for the distribution of 7.5 kilograms of fentanyl, as well as allegedly accepting bribes to protect its transportation. If we take the DEA’s statistic that 2 milligrams of the drug is considered a fatal dose, that’s enough fentanyl to kill roughly 3.75 million people, just short of the entire population of Los Angeles.
The officers were 33-year-old John Kotchkoski and 44-year-old Marco Merino, who tried to recruit an informant to traffic the substance with them, stating they promised law enforcement protection and said they could intervene if other law enforcement agencies attempted to investigate the informant.
Merino was also connected to several documents showing he tried to gain citizenship to Mexico, was attached to plans related to buying Airbnb properties there, and had associations with the Sinaloa cartel.
Transactions involving Merino took place in March, April, May, August and September 2021.
By February 2022, Merino pled guilty in federal court, although no charges have yet been filed against him.
In June of 2021, another Detective with the Highland Park Police Department was charged with distributing and conspiring to distribute fentanyl-laced heroin in the Detroit area.
Tiffany Lipkovitch had been serving in the department since 2011. She pled guilty in January 2022 and in July, was sentenced to just two years out of a maximum 20 year sentence.
Joseph Recca, an NYPD police officer, was arrested in 2020 for the distribution of fentanyl that caused at least one confirmed overdose on Long Island. He was found with 100 pressed fentanyl pills and 10,000 in cash. He has been serving on the NYPD since 2016 and resigned following his arrest. He was sentenced to five years.
A Luzerne County police officer in Pennsylvania pled guilty in federal court to trafficking fentanyl with a firearm in August 2022.
The 52-year-old Todd Houghtlin was allegedly involved in a distribution ring linked to a Bloods street gang and was found with 50 packets containing fentanyl as well as a .380 caliber pistol.
These are all within the last two years. And it’s not just U.S. police officers either.
In July 2019, a Mexican municipal police officer in Cananea, Sonora, Mexico was charged in Amarillo, Texas for trafficking “enough fentanyl to kill 10 million people.”
Assmir Contreras-Martinez said this was his second such trip to traffic contraband from California to Florida.
Other leaks might include the surprisingly short prison sentences handed out to those convicted of trafficking fentanyl throughout homeless communities.
Unusual Sentencing
Alpha Kamara was charged in July 2022 for conspiracy to distribute 400 grams of fentanyl, enough to kill roughly 200,000 people. Just one day after his arrest, Fairfax County commonwealth’s attorney Steve Descano released the offender without bail.
Descano has a history of dropping felony charges for individuals who went on to attack the homeless. In 2021, he dropped charges for a man who was later convicted for killing two homeless men and wounding three others in New York City and in Washington, D.C.
Back in June, he released another repeat offender who went on to kill an elderly homeless woman at a bus stop.
In California, two drug traffickers, Jose Sendejas and Benito Madrigal, were arrested on trafficking charges after 150,000 fentanyl pills worth roughly $750,000 were found in their vehicle just outside Fresno. But only days after their arrest, they were released from custody after a judge granted them a court order.
After getting out on cashless bail, they skipped their court date in July, and a warrant has been issued for their arrest although to date, they have not been found.
Meanwhile, despite the dramatic increase in homeless deaths from fentanyl, funding pours in to assist the homeless without targeting the leading cause of death.
Federal Funding - Where is it Going?
There are roughly 33 federal programs that explicitly flagged homeless individuals as beneficiaries, and although it’s nearly impossible to find how much federal funding is directed towards the homeless, it helps to compare what cities have spent.
New York City spent roughly $3.2 billion on its homeless programs in 2019, and San Francisco spent roughly $305 million that same year. Los Angeles agreed in April to spend $3 billion over the next five years to house homeless residents, or at least those who manage to survive until then.
Yet in 2022, despite the continued increase in funding, homelessness rates rose again for the fifth straight year throughout the U.S.
With many causes, the funding was intended to flatten the curve, but instead, the funding seems to have caused rates to skyrocket.
The alarming connection between the rise in homelessness deaths and the presence of fentanyl is worth closer investigation when viewed through the lens of Operation Fast and Furious, the Iran-Contra, and the CIA’s notorious history and involvement in drug trafficking.
Whether it be Afghanistan in 2002, Venezuela in 1992, Panama in 1989, Honduras in 1981, Mexico in 1980, Nicaragua in 1986, or Laos in 1975, there’s been significant drug trafficking done by U.S. federal agencies including the CIA, either directly or under their oversight, and I hope Skid Row isn’t added to the list in 2022.
While disagreements persist on how to fix the increasing homeless crisis, fentanyl overdoses are not the solution.
Federal services for the homeless can be found here and additional services regarding mental health and substance abuse can be found here.