The death of a teenage boy in a San Francisco apartment has been identified as the city’s first fatal overdose linked to cychlorphine, a frightening new drug believed to be far more potent than fentanyl.
Police announced Monday that four people have been arrested in connection with the April death of 16-year-old Dante Lacourte.
Dante was discovered in his bedroom by his mother at their apartment in San Francisco’s affluent Nob Hill neighborhood on April 7.
His face had turned blue, while black fluid seeped from his nose and mouth and collected on his bedsheets, his mother, 53-year-old Christina Lacourte, told The New York Times.
Christina tried to revive her son with two doses of Narcan, but the medication did not work. Paramedics pronounced him dead when they arrived.
Because Dante had struggled with addiction, his mother initially believed fentanyl had caused his death.
Weeks later, however, his autopsy results revealed that he had cychlorphine, a synthetic opioid, in his system.
‘The tragedy marks the first time cychlorphine – estimated to be ten times more powerful than fentanyl and undetectable by fentanyl test strips – has been detected in San Francisco,’ the city’s Department of Public Health said at the time.
Dante Lacourte, 16, died from an overdose involving a drug estimated to be 10 times stronger than fentanyl after he was found by his mother, Christina Lacourte, 53, in April.
He was found in his bedroom at the family’s Nob Hill apartment, where black fluid had seeped from his nose and mouth onto his sheets.
Investigators believe Dante ingested counterfeit pills that contained cychlorphine, another synthetic opioid called N-Desethyl Isotonitazene and ethyl bromazolam, a benzodiazepine that is not approved by the FDA.
His death prompted an investigation that led to the arrest of four drug dealers and police seizing over 20,000 counterfeit pills.
San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) used Dante’s phone to determine who he had texted about purchasing the pills before his death.
Officers went undercover to buy drugs from the same dealers and then were able to obtain arrest warrants.
On September 8, police detained 46-year-old Nicholas Wallace at his home in the Tenderloin neighborhood and recovered 34 suspected oxycodone pills and cocaine.
At the same house, officers located and arrested 44-year-old Sharonee Hyson, who was on active parole and in possession of 11.7 grams of cocaine base and a loaded firearm, the SFPD said.
The next day, September 9, officers arrested Leander Pitts, 46, and Starr Lamare, 39, at a home in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood.
There, police seized over 20,000 pills, including suspected counterfeit Xanax, oxycodone, hydrocodone, cyclobenzaprine and other deadly narcotics, including fentanyl.
His death prompted an investigation that led to the arrest of four drug dealers and police seizing over 20,000 counterfeit pills
Additionally, officers seized 68.5 grams of MDMA, 6.5 grams of black tar heroin, a semi-automatic assault rifle, a semi-automatic pistol and $2,267 in cash.
‘It is a sad day, though, why we are here. When we talk about the loss of life of a 16-year-old. A 16-year-old man who I’m sure had a lot ahead,’ San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said at a press conference announcing the arrests.
The SFPD is working with the federal Food and Drug Administration to determine if any of the counterfeit pills seized contain cychlorphine.
‘San Francisco was caught flat-footed by the fentanyl crisis. We will not let that happen again. When a new deadly drug appears in San Francisco, we are going to find it, we are going to track it, we are going to warn people about it,’ Mayor Daniel Lurie said.