DEA warns that fentanyl-laced cocaine is killing more unsuspecting users

Cocaine is considered a Class B narcotic, with a deadly twist.

Cocaine is often diluted – ‘cut’ – with a variety of substances, including the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl. The bodies of unsuspecting users pile up there.

The Drug Enforcement Agency reported 29,918 cocaine overdose deaths in 2023, a 5% increase nationwide year-over-year, according to health figures.

“You can’t trust it,” said Stephen Belleau, the DEA’s acting special agent in charge of New England. “You can’t try something once and expect to survive. The days of experimentation should be over.”

Mexican cartels are “flooding the streets” with fake pills laced with fentanyl and lacing coke with the same “poison,” he told the Herald.

The warning comes as star Patriots defenseman Jabrill Peppers has been arrested on charges of domestic violence and cocaine possession.

Belleau and others emphasized that Sinaloa Cartels and rivals are using cheap fentanyl as a substitute for cocaine or to enhance the high without regard to the lives it endangers.

“Until we get serious about the border, we will continue to lose thousands of lives to fentanyl,” said Boston attorney George Price, a former DEA agent and expert on terrorism. “Cocaine has always been a problem and now it’s coming across.”

The Centers for Disease Control reported that fentanyl alone caused nearly 75,000 deaths in 2023, while meth added another 36,000 to cocaine’s tally. That’s more than 100,000 overdoses due to this synthetic killer.

“If we lost 100,000 people any other way, we would be in a world war,” Price added.