Teen boy is found dead on blackened bedsheets inside ritzy San Francisco apartment marking city’s first death caused by frightening new drug that’s STRONGER than fentanyl
A teenage boy found dead in a San Francisco apartment marked the city’s first fatal overdose tied to a terrifying new drug stronger than fentanyl.
Four people have been arrested since 16-year-old Dante Lacourte’s death in April, police announced on Monday.
His mother discovered him inside his bedroom at their apartment in the ritzy Nob Hill neighborhood on April 7.
Dante’s face had turned blue, and black fluid oozed out of his nose and mouth and pooled on his sheets, Christina Lacourte, 53, told The New York Times.
She attempted to give him two doses of Narcan, but they did not revive him, and he was declared dead by the time paramedics arrived.
Christina said her son struggled with addiction, so she assumed he had died from fentanyl.
However, when his autopsy report came back weeks later, she was stunned to learn he had a synthetic opioid called cychlorphine 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, was found dead of an overdose from a drug ten times more powerful than fentanyl by his mother, Christina Lacourte, 53, in April
He was found inside his bedroom at their apartment in the ritzy Nob Hill neighborhood as black fluid oozed out of his nose and mouth and pooled on 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.
