Add The California Post on Google San Francisco cops on Friday busted four suspected dope pushers accused of peddling a horrifying new super drug blamed for the tragic overdose of a beloved teenager.
Police Chief Derrick Lew on Monday said officers arrested the “dealers” in connection with the death of Dante Lacourte, 16, a local student who in April overdosed on a powerful synthetic opioid known as cychlorphine that’s gripped the city in fear.
Infamous for its extreme potency and unpredictable presence in the illicit drug market, cychlorphine just recently surfaced in the city and was present in a counterfeit pill taken by Dante, police said.
Lew said the SFPD will continue following leads uncovered through the investigation and follow up on any potential arrests.
“Our investigators will stop at nothing to ensure deadly narcotics are taken off our streets and individuals who peddle them are arrested and held accountable,” he said.
Dante’s heartbroken mother, Christina Lacourte, told The New York Times she found him dead in his room after she went to wake him up for school. “It just takes one pill,” she said.
San Francisco police linked the four suspects to Dante’s death by chasing leads spotted in the boy’s room on the day he was found dead. Cops first identified the deadly pills, and then searched the boy’s phone, zeroing in the dealers believed to be the source of the drugs.
Undercover cops then called the alleged pushers, buying pills laced with the deadly substance to build out thier case.
And then police pounced last week, raiding three San Francisco homes where they found 20,000 pills suspected of containing the drug.
Cops also found 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.
The first two arrests came last Tuesday, when busted 46-year-old Nicholas Wallace on Sept. 8 at his O’Farrell Street home, seizing 34 pills believed to be oxycodone, as well as a quality of cocaine.
Parolee Sharonee Hyson, 44, was also collared in the raid after cops caught him holding 11.7 grams of cocaine base and a loaded gun.
The next day cops raided the San Francisco homes of Leander Pitts, 46, and Starr Lamare, 39, finding more than 20,000 pills, including counterfeit Xanax, oxycodone, hydrocodone, cyclobenzaprine and other deadly narcotics, including fentanyl.
All four suspects were booked in San Francisco County Jail for a slew of crimes, including possession for sale of narcotics and firearms charges.
Law enforcement officials say cychlorphine, which is roughly ten times stronger than fentanyl, was first identified in the US two years ago.
“The first time DEA saw it was in 2024 at one of our labs down in Florida,” Bob Beris, special agent in Charge of the DEA San Francisco Field Division told ABC.
Berris warned that cychlorphine is not confined to pills alone and can be hidden across multiple street drugs, making detection and avoidance especially difficult.
“It can be mixed into a pill. It can be sold as a powder. It can be mixed in with cocaine. It can be sold as cocaine. Again, just because we haven’t seen some of these examples yet doesn’t mean it’s not out there,” Beris said.
Public health experts say current drug-checking tools may not detect the presence of cychlorphine. It resists overdose reversal drugs like Narcan, requiring multiple doses to be effective.
Also present in the pill taken by Dante was a new drug that’s twenty times more potent than deadly fentanyl – and turning the city’s addicts into zombies.
The killer counterfeit opioid isotonitazene – known on the streets as ISO – was blended with cychlorphine in the pill taken by Dante, San Francisco Health Department officials said in an alert issued the month he died.
ISO is cheap and up to 100 times more powerful than fentanyl – making for a potential crisis.
“Even a single pill can contain a lethal dose,” the officials said in their alert.
A shocking video posted online showed throngs of stupefied users reeling from the effects of ISO in the city’s notorious Tenderloin district.
In the video created by Manhattan Institute writer Christopher Rufo, addicts are seen stooping over from the effects of the powerful drug and even lying corpselike on the sidewalk.
Rufo said a dealer told him ISO is becoming more popular on the streets.
“For the last ten years, it’s been an arms race for increasing the strength of opioids, from heroin to fentanyl, and now, to ISO,” said Rufo. “It’s devastating California cities.”
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