A cartel fentanyl dealer told the BBC his product still gets “under the wall,” even as a Chicago jail reported a novel spike in overdoses and an Ohio recovery leader warned that stimulant users are unknowingly taking fentanyl-laced drugs.
Tranq mix blunts Narcan, BBC reports
Reporting from Columbus, Ohio, the BBC’s Quentin Sommerville followed a 48-year-old Army veteran named Mike who smoked a few grains of fentanyl off foil. He said, “This drug will damn near make you do anything,” and that a hit costs three or four dollars. He believed his dose was cut with “xylazine, and the one we can’t pronounce,” which the BBC identified as medetomidine—both synthetic animal tranquilizers sometimes called “tranq.”
The BBC notes fentanyl is 50–100 times stronger than heroin and that naloxone (Narcan) reverses opioid overdoses but does not counteract tranquilizers such as xylazine or medetomidine. The report adds xylazine has been linked to severe skin ulcers.
Ohio recovery group: ‘We think it’s crack—but it isn’t’
At a Glenwood Church meeting of the Hope Dealer Community, recovery stories included a man revived only after a fourth naloxone attempt, and Tonya, who said her nephew died of an overdose while she simultaneously overdosed on crack spiked with fentanyl. “In the last 12 months in Franklin County, 78% of fatal overdoses are from stimulants,” said Hope Dealers leader Scott Sanders, who told the BBC the crisis has shifted as users buying crack are “getting crack mixed with fentanyl or other opioid cocktails.”
Sommerville reports Hope Dealers works with the CDC on drug sampling; a kit linked to Mike tested positive for medetomidine. Sanders said, “The drug supply in 2026 is this: we think we are buying crack but we’re not… Today it is mixed… with other drugs such as fentanyl or meth, and then other adulterants… made in basements.”
Dealer: ‘If it doesn’t go over the wall, it goes under the wall’
In Chicago, an anonymous fentanyl dealer who said he works for Mexican cartels told the BBC his supply chain is “as strong as ever.” Challenged about “50,000 people dying each year” in the opioid crisis, he replied that “the end justifies the means.” Asked whether targeting boats with suspected traffickers during the Trump administration affected him, he said his product still moves: “If it doesn’t go over the wall, it goes under the wall. If it doesn’t go through the border, it comes through the top border. This game is about adaptability.” He said the biggest change is “synthetics… not even the tip of the iceberg.”
Cook County Jail: paper, microwaves—and eight deaths
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart told the BBC that in 2023 the jail saw a spike in overdoses alongside “paper all over the place” near people who had overdosed or been revived. Security video showed inmates spasming and collapsing, and lighting paper in microwaves in cell-block kitchens. The facility typically averages one or two overdose deaths a year, but Dart said eight inmates died that year from fatal seizures. He described what the BBC called a “completely novel” pattern.
Overdoses down from 2022 peak, but crisis shifts
The BBC reports that naloxone’s wider use has helped cut fatal overdoses from about 110,000 at a 2022 peak to around 70,000 last year. But Sommerville’s reporting suggests the threat is morphing as tranquilizers and other synthetics—often homemade—are mixed into street drugs, complicating rescues and changing who overdoses.
