This month, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the formation of Operation Synthetic Opioid Surge (S.O.S), a new program designed to reduce the supply of deadly synthetic drugs in high-impact areas, as well as identify wholesale distribution networks and international and domestic suppliers.
Operation S.O.S. includes an enforcement surge in 10 districts that have high drug overdose death rates. The participating U.S. Attorney’s Offices will select specific counties and prosecute every readily provable case involving the distribution of fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and other synthetic opioids. The ten Operation S.O.S. districts are:
- Eastern District of California,
- Eastern District of Kentucky,
- District of Maine,
- District of New Hampshire,
- Northern District of Ohio,
- Southern District of Ohio,
- Western District of Pennsylvania,
- Eastern District of Tennessee,
- Northern District of West Virginia, and
- Southern District of West Virginia.
Operation S.O.S. builds on a promising initiative from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida that achieved a 77.1 percent drop in overdoses and 74.2 percent drop in deaths from the last six months of 2016 to the last six months of 2017 through the prosecution of every readily provable drug distribution case involving synthetic opioids in Manatee County, Florida.
Read the full DOJ press release to learn more.