WOODBRIDGE, Va. — Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said there are new efforts to combat the growing fentanyl threat in the Commonwealth.
The highly potent synthetic opioid has ravaged many communities across the country, and continues to keep police departments, including Prince William County, busy. Earlier this year, two teenagers in the county died after ingesting fake Percocet pills laced with fentanyl, also known as Perc30.
The Drug Enforcement Administration issued a warning this week after more cases of "rainbow fentanyl" are popping up, including in the D.C. region. The pills look like candy, which the DEA said is used to lure the youth by drug cartels.
In a recent back-to-school rally in Annandale, Miyares told WUSA9 there will soon be a new public service announcement called 'One Pill Kills' that highlights the dangers of fentanyl and how more community members need to step up to help.
"We're rolling out several new assistant general attorneys assigned into U.S. attorneys offices to go after drug dealers," Miyares said.
Two people were injured during a shooting involving police Thursday night during a drug sting operation, according to Prince William County Police. Officers say the shooting happened shortly after 7 p.m. in the 14700 block of Fox Glove Court in Woodbridge.
In a press conference following the shooting, officials revealed the shooting happened during an undercover operation involving Prince William County Police (PWCPD), Manassas City Police, Manassas Park Police, ATF and the FBI. Members of the multi-agency narcotics task force were conducting an undercover operation into fentanyl distribution in the area.
During the operation, there was an exchange of gunfire between members of the task force and "people involved in the operation," Prince William County Police said in a press release.
"We have to send a message to the dealers, don't deal those poisons to our kids," Miyares said. "Don't bring this into Virginia because the full weight of our office will come against you."
The attorney general said prosecutors need every tool to go after the drug distributors and dealers.
He also criticized previous Gov. Ralph Northam for vetoing a bipartisan bill in 2019 that would charge drug dealers in fatal overdoses with felony homicide. Northam said he believed the bill goes beyond dealers and would target people struggling with addiction.
"It doesn't impede us necessarily to going after people who distribute drugs or certainly when a distribution occurs in a death," Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Amy Ashworth said.
Ashworth said it appears a lot of the violence in the county revolve around distribution of drugs and involve younger people.
Drug overdoses continue to be the leading cause of unnatural death in Virginia since 2013. Cases of fentanyl have only gotten worse with 2,038 deaths in 20201, according to a quarterly report from the Virginia Department of Health. The count so far this year is 1,988.
The number of fatal fentanyl overdoses in 2021 compared to 2020 increased by 22.8%. In 2020, fentanyl was involved in 76.4% of all drug overdose deaths.