By Erik Larsen, APP Staff Writer - 

Coronato addressed the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., as part of a panel of experts on the Chinese connection to fentanyl.

Coronato, who is expected to step down as early as next month after 5½-years as the county’s chief law enforcement executive, said that synthetic narcotics will become the predominate type of illegal drug over the next five years. He also said drug dealers were increasingly taking their business from the street to the web.

In 2017, fentanyl killed more than 29,000 Americans and its impact — along with an increase in the public’s use of heroin and other opioids has dominated Coronato’s tenure as prosecutor, Smith noted.

In 2017, there was a 20 percent reduction in overdose deaths in Ocean County. Last year, there were 174 such fatalities in the county down from 217 deaths in 2016, he said.

Smith said the program has “almost certainly reduced deaths.”

 

Coronato: “My Dead Bodies” 

“Ocean County has become ground zero for the overdose deaths in New Jersey over the last several years,” Coronato said.

In 2012, the year before Coronato became prosecutor, there were 53 confirmed overdose deaths in Ocean County from opioid use. In 2013, the year he was appointed prosecutor by Gov. Chris Christie, there were 112 overdose deaths, then 106 in 2014, 120 in 2015 and 217 in 2016.

Today, fentanyl is becoming increasingly blended into the poduction of other known legal drugs. Coronato said the synthetic opiod was found in 10 percent of “my dead bodies” in 2014, 30 percent in 2015, 60 percent in 2016 and 80 percent so far in 2018 – with that percentage expected to reach 85 percent by the end of the year.

Coronato said he expects that “synthetics will become the predominate type of illegal drugs abused within the next 5 years” and in many instances are being sold online.

Additionally, fentanyl is being combined with 14 other drugs — such as cocaine and amphetamines. The number of confiscated drugs that have shown traces of fentanyl when tested by forensic lab technicians in the Prosecutor’s Office have risen from 37 percent in 2017 to 52 percent in 2018 to date, Coronato testifed. 

“The drug traffickers are businessmen who are seizing an opportunity to maximize their profits simply through their distribution of same,” Coronato said. “Why grow a plant when you can synthetically produce and manufacture at a significantly less cost?”

Smith: Make China Accountable

Smith plans to press the U.S. State Department and Drug Enforcement Administration to do more to hold China accountable — where the vast majority of the fentanyl in the United States is produced, Smith said.

“Are we using existing tools to hold bad actors in China accountable?” Smith asked. “We have tools, such as the Global Magnitsky Act, which targets corrupt officials and human rights abusers.”

The law, named for a Russian anti-corruption crusader who died in a Moscow jail, enables the federal government to take action against human rights offenders, such as freezing their assets and prevent them from entering the United States or its territories.

“Perhaps it is time we start thinking outside the box and use something like Global Magnitsky to ensure that corrupt Chinese officials and narco-traffickers are held to account,” Smith said.

Smith also supports a bill in Congress called the Synthetics and Overdose Prevention Act, which would require the U.S. Postal Service to obtain detailed data on the shipper and addressee and other data – empowering U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to target fentanyl and other illegal drug shipments – just as UPS and Fed-Ex are required to do. 

Erik Larsen: 732-682-9359 or elarsen@gannettnj.com

This article ran in the Sept. 7, 2018 print edition of the Asbury Park Press and can be found online at:
https://www.app.com/story/news/health/addiction/2018/09/06/outgoing-ocean-county-prosecutor-warns-congress-future-opioid-epidemic/1219448002/