Kaelin was 32 years old when he died of a fentanyl overdose. I had known him since he was five years old as the childhood friend of my own son, who was his same age. For several years, he and my son were inseparable until they went their separate ways in high school. It is shocking and instructive how the sudden death of a person you know can cut through the fog of a conversation about drug use in Colorado, specifically about what is happening with fentanyl.

Five people died earlier this week in Commerce City, apparently from a mass fentanyl overdose. An infant was found alive on the scene. A current Rockies player, C.J. Cron, testified in the federal trial regarding the 2019 fentanyl overdose death of Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs. The Angels’ former communications director is now going to prison, likely for decades, for his role in providing the fentanyl to Skaggs in a pill which resembled prescription oxycodone. There is no shortage of stories full of sadness.

And yet, when fentanyl kills someone you know, someone you watched grow up, and you witness the agony of parents, the conversation about drug use sharpens, grows more pointed, becomes more urgent. How did we get to this terrible place?

Fentanyl was first developed in 1959 and introduced for use as an intravenous anesthetic. According to numerous sources, it is approximately 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. Illegally produced fentanyl is turning up most frequently now either as a powder or in counterfeit prescription pills, and often is sold in combination with drugs such as cocaine or heroin. According to author/journalist Sam Quinones, fentanyl is a hyper-profitable heroin substitute that has “upended the dope world the way tech disrupted business.”

And you can see this in Colorado’s statistics. Fentanyl-related deaths are skyrocketing. In recent years, the overdose deaths in Colorado with specific mention of fentanyl have climbed dramatically. In 2018, the number was 102; in 2020, the number was 540; in 2021, provisional numbers show it will be over 800. The trend this year continues.

These numbers are even more sobering when one reflects on the reality they are occurring while overdose reversal drugs like Naloxone are widely available and routinely used to prevent deaths.

Lab testing by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reveals that four out of every 10 counterfeit pills which contain fentanyl have two milligrams or more of it, which is considered a lethal dose. On the street, these counterfeit pills are marketed by dealers as legitimate prescription pills, and they clearly are too easy to buy.

In the U.S. Attorney’s Office, our dedicated prosecutors and staff relentlessly pursue the criminals who manufacture and distribute this lethal narcotic. In recent months, we have prioritized three strategies in an effort to reduce the fentanyl supply in Colorado and deter fentanyl dealing:

• We work with the DEA, FBI, and other state and federal partners, to aggressively pursue drug trafficking organizations supplying Colorado with illicit fentanyl;

• We prosecute overdose cases involving death or serious bodily injury to deter dealers and to leverage strict federal sentencing standards; and,

• We bring “community impact” cases for areas uniquely impacted by fentanyl, or that are encountering new forms of fentanyl as they arrive in Colorado.

United States v. Bruce Holder was the first case in federal court in Colorado that found a defendant guilty of distributing counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl, which resulted in a death. In that case, a jury convicted Holder, a 55-year-old Grand Junction man, of crimes related to importing tens of thousands of fentanyl pills from Mexico and distributing them throughout the community in Western Colorado, including to a young man in Carbondale who died from taking the drugs. Holder is scheduled to be sentenced on May 4, 2022.

Just last week, Ernesto Ibarra Jr. of Fort Collins, was sentenced to 175 months in federal prison for distributing fentanyl resulting in death. Little blue pills resembling prescription oxycodone contained fentanyl and again were the culprit, killing one victim.

Several other cases are pending that allege the defendants distributed fentanyl that resulted in deaths. And this work will only continue as more and more Coloradans are fooled into taking this deadly drug.

Conversations and debates are ongoing, in Colorado and around the nation, about what to do to stop the fentanyl scourge that is rampaging through communities everywhere. Those arguments will not be resolved here today.

My wife, son and I attended the small ceremony commemorating Kaelin Dungan- Sullivan’s too short life. As we gathered in a Park Hill home, there were smiles and laughter mixed with tears as we remembered simpler and happier times.

In the U.S. Attorney’s Office, our devotion is to the rule of law and our mission is to protect the safety of our citizens. We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to prosecute the criminals who are making and distributing fentanyl, and who are increasingly killing our citizens.

Cole Finegan is the United States attorney for the District of Colorado.