Drugs likely came to Prince illegally

The disclosure that some pills found at Prince’s Paisley Park home and studio were counterfeit and contained the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl strongly suggests the pills came to the superstar musician illegally.

But exactly how Prince obtained the drugs is still unknown, four months after he collapsed in an elevator on April 21 and died of an accidental fentanyl overdose. Authorities have so far revealed little about their investigation, saying it’s active and moving forward.

Former prosecutors and defense attorneys who are familiar with drug investigations say it’s likely someone will be prosecuted, whether or not Prince knew he was consuming illegal drugs.

“They will not say it was just Prince’s fault and let it go at that,’’ said Phil Turner, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago now in private practice.

An official close to the investigation said on Sunday that some of the pills found at PaisleyPark were falsely labeled as a common generic pain killer similar to Vicodin, but actually contained fentanyl. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, also said that records show Prince did not have a prescription for any controlledsubstances in Minnesota in the past 12 months.

Tamburino, who is not connected to the Prince case, said investigators will likely talk to those close to Prince, and they’ll also search the computers, phones and communications of Prince and his associates, to see whether the pills were purchased online. Those searches would typically involve examining text messages, Instagram messages and other communications.