Opioid crisis gives cartels a lucrative heroin market
TULSA — An ongoing opioid crisis created a “perfect storm” for drug cartels to profit from Oklahomans’ addictions.
Tulsa Police Capt. Mark Wollmershauser attributed all the heroin in Tulsa to Mexican cartel involvement. As a business entity, cartel cells moved into the metro area to fill a demand for narcotics and painkillers.
“It’s a perfect storm,” Wollmershauser said. “They looked across the country, especially here in Oklahoma, and saw what was happening.”
Tulsa police estimate cartel cells are going through about 24 kilograms of heroin per month, generating about $18.7 million in annual sales for the Tulsa market. The price per kilo varies from about $65,000 to about $72,500, local and county law enforcers said.
On Wednesday, law enforcers on the federal, state and local levels executed coordinated series of raids across two counties, netting what they said were two-thirds of Tulsa’s heroin supply and several thousand dollars.
Up to six cartel cells are operating in Tulsa, Wollmershauser said. Tulsa County sheriff’s deputies, who are attached to a Homeland Security task force in Tulsa, said they targeted three cartel cells that are part of the much larger Sinaloa cartel. The Sinaloa cartel is infamously associated with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who was extradited to the U.S. in January.
Those three cells generated up to $218,000 in sales per week, or about $11.3 million per year.
A task force deputy said the heroin trafficking problem is not unique to Tulsa.
“You name a town the size of Tulsa or even smaller or bigger, and it’s happening there,” he said. “We network with hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the country, and they have the same problem.”
Cartels began stepping into Tulsa about six years ago, Wollmershauser said. The fact that these organizations cross borders, states and cities underscores the need for joint efforts, such as Wednesday’s coordinated raids.
On Wednesday morning, law enforcers raided nine locations and arrested 10 people. They seized 4 ½ pounds of heroin and about $123,000. Six of those 10 were Mexican nationals “that were illegally present in the United States,” officials said in a news release.
The demand for heroin is driven, in part, due to its relative lower cost to prescription painkillers and increased attention on potential overprescription of narcotic painkillers.
“It is solely about supply and demand,” Wollmershauser said. “The demand here is extremely high.”
Cartel cells in Oklahoma are largely based in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, forcing rural and outof-town users to visit those metro areas. However, Wollmershauser said he has recently seen attempts by the cells to expand into Bartlesville.
While law enforcement is Tulsa police’s primary duty, Wollmershauser said they are not “trying to arrest ourselves out of a problem.”
“Just as we are trying to attack these drug cartels, we’ve also implemented a Narcan program,” he said.
The Narcan program, established in 2014, equipped officers with nalaxone, a treatment for opiate and opioid overdoses. Since then, Tulsa police officers have deployed its use more than 50 times.
The encompassing approach to addressing the opioid crisis, which President Donald Trump declared a national public health emergency in October 2017, includes working “hand-inhand” with other agencies, legislatures and the Oklahoma attorney general’s office, Wollmershauser said.
Attorney General Mike Hunter and Oklahoma lawmakers created a commission in April 2017 to “establish a much-needed framework” to enhance the state’s response to the opioid crisis.
One area that could prevent opioid addictions that lead to the heroin demand is enhanced education for patients, Wollmerhauser said. The Oklahoma Commission on Opioid Abuse identified that issue in a January 2018 report as a potential way to stymie the over-prescription of narcotic painkillers.
The report states education on “proper prescribing and risks of addiction” are key to reducing over-prescription and that pharmacists can act as a second-line of defense with training to recognize addiction and pharmaceutical diversion.
“If we don’t figure out how to help folks not become addicted, then we’re just going to continue to fight this battle,” Wollmershauser said.