Austin American-Statesman: ‘Like Russian roulette’: Counterfeit opioids laced with fentanyl a deadly problem in Central Texas

When Becky Stewart hadn’t heard from her 19-year-old son in several hours, she decided to check on him at his Leander apartment. 

But when she got there on March 20, Cameron Stewart wouldn’t answer the door and she called police. Officers found him dead inside and later said he haddied from taking an illegal pill laced with a deadly amount of fentanyl.

“Through Snapchat he had bought a pill thinking it was Valium but it contained a lethal dose of fentanyl,” she said.

Counterfeit pills being sold with illegal fentanyl in them are a major problem in Central Texas, said Lora Makowski, the chief of the legal division for the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas.

“We are currently investigating several overdose deaths,” Makowski said.

One group of people arrested in a drug bust announced by Cedar Park police in the first week of January was responsible for distributing hundreds of thousands of counterfeit tablets laced with fentanyl in the past months, she said.