The battle against fentanyl erupted in Collin County

The fight against fentanyl continues to hit North Texas communities hard, even in Collin County, home to some of the safest cities in the country.

“It’s heartbreaking. It makes me sick in my stomach,” Collin County Sheriff Jim Skinner said of recent headlines from the nearby Carrollton area, where three teenagers died after taking fentanyl pills.

“I was on those stages. We had to put people in body bags due to fatal fentanyl poisoning.”

He admits that the war on fentanyl is losing.

“This is not a war we are winning. This is evidenced by the body count, ”Skinner said.

Nearly 107,000 people died from drug overdoses in the US in 2022, including fentanyl poisoning, according to the CDC.

Since 2019, there has been an 886% increase in deaths from fentanyl poisoning in Collin County, he said.

Skinner agreed to speak to NBC 5 about his agency’s fight against fentanyl.

Skinner points to the combined efforts of eight sheriffs in different counties, where they share the workforce and the mission of stopping drug dealers.

The North Texas Sheriff’s Crime Unit has confiscated more than 8,000 pounds of drugs and millions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels, he said.

“Our Highway Interception Officers are out on the roads looking for these ‘cartel soldiers,’” Skinner said.

According to a CCSO press release, last Friday the team carried out a traffic stop along Highway 75 in Plano and seized about 6,000 fentanyl tablets.

The police arrested 23-year-old Eduardo Reyes from Dallas.

Reyes also faces federal drug possession charges, according to a closed criminal case filed Thursday.

The longtime law enforcement official says the Mexican drug cartels are using multiple scenarios.

Skinner says it’s easier for drug cartels to manufacture the addictive synthetic opioid with the help of Chinese dealers, and it’s easier to smuggle it from Mexico to the US across a “broken border.”

“What happens on the border today will affect me tomorrow,” Skinner said.

Why would drug dealers add fentanyl to drugs when two milligrams could be lethal?

This is the question Skinner said they asked cartel members in custody.

“Their response was: look, our goal is to raise addiction. It’s all about the end result, and if we kill a few people along the way, that’s just the cost of doing business,” Skinner said. These are not my words, these are their words.

Legally, fentanyl is used as a powerful pain reliever for some cancer patients.

Drug dealers add it to other drugs like heroin or cocaine, as well as counterfeit pills that look like OxyContin, Percocet, Xanax or Adderall.

“Every parent who hears your story needs to understand and know that one pill is enough and it’s over,” Skinner said.