Alleged dealers’ colorful discussion leaves no room for shades of gray

Beyond the 30 defendants, the drugs, guns and cash the feds netted in their latest strike on a Lawrence-based cartel, there was this chilling bit of intercepted conversation between two alleged dealers.

I quote from the released transcripts:

Caballito asks a cohort named Tio: “Oh, that little blue one, did you check it?” “No,” Tio replies. Caballito asks, “What did they tell you?”

“That’s killing people,” Tio says, of the blue one. “Yeah,” Caballito responds. Tio: “Listen, that’s killing people, I already told you.” Caballito: “I check it already … because I gave it to someone who is very picky, I gave it to them at nine and it passed. A friend of mine told me the blue one is good, but it kills a lot of people.”

And with that, Caballito is heard laughing.

Right here is where the federal agent who authored the report notes that based on his years of experience, what these two alleged dealers are referring to is blue fentanyl.

The agent also notes that Caballito’s boast, “I gave it to them at nine” was drug dealer talk for a 9 to 1 ratio of fentanyl to heroin. Little wonder why people were turning up dead.

“I don’t know what the feds are charging those people with,” Brian Wallace said yesterday, “but I hope murder is at the top of the list. Fentanyl has killed a helluva lot of people around here.”

Brian Wallace’s rage was hardly abstract. Two years ago, he lost his stepson, Brendan, to an overdose. But long before that, when he was a state rep, he fought tirelessly for more detox beds and warned of the rapidly approaching opioid epidemic.

“Like I said, those guys really should be charged with murder,” he said, “but at the same time, the crazy thing is in many cases people know what they’re taking and they do it anyway.

“What I came to learn is that ODing is considered to be the ultimate high. They’re chasing that high on a bet that Narcan will bring them back.”

Indeed, in a subsequent excerpt from another intercepted conversation Caballito tells Tio:

“And the people are asking me for the little blue one.”

Tio agrees: “Oh, but everyone … that’s what people are waiting on me for.”

Caballito chimes in: “Yes, the little blue one.”

At this point, both dealers appear to agree that if their public craves “the blue one,” then that’s what they have to provide even if it was more expensive.

As they keep on talking, though, Tio says, “but there’s another one stronger than the blue one … a pink one.”

The mere mention of “the pink one” gets Caballito’s attention. “I was even scared of that one.”

Death, it seems, comes in shades of blue and pink.