Authorities arrested a couple trafficking heroin and the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl Wednesday after a concerned driver spotted the pair shooting up behind the wheel on a highway.
The witness continued to follow the car, which he told police nearly hit a barrier on I-384, off the highway into Coventry, Conn., Dispatchers found the vehicle had the incorrect license plates and was not registered. An officer eventually caught up with the car and pulled the couple over, who admitted to transporting 200 bags of heroin and fentanyl they had bought in Hartford, Conn., reports the Hartford Courant.
The pair, 23-year-old Paul Sumner and 20-year-old Sara Sensabaugh, told police they took two bags for personal use, which they shot up while transporting the drugs. Sensabaugh also admitted to stealing jewelry from her relatives and pawning it to buy the supply of narcotics.
Police seized the remaining 198 bags of drugs, which tested positive for heroin and fentanyl, a synthetic opioid roughly 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine.
“It kinds of shows the desperation of some people who are addicted to drugs,” said Coventry Police Chief Mark Palmer, according to the Hartford Courant.
Authorities in states across the country say they are witnessing more accidents linked to drivers using painkillers and heroin due to the worsening addiction crisis.
Officers with the Madison Police Department in Wisconsin recently arrested 25-year-old motorist Jonathan Leverton-Duerst for driving high on heroin after he was seen accelerating off a road before going down a ditch and smashing into a fence. It was his fourth offense for operating a vehicle under the influence.
Researchers from Columbia University in New York City recently investigated more than two decades of data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System. The study aimed to see if traffic accidents and fatalities climbed in association with opioid use, particularly prescription painkillers.
The study found the opioid scourge is making roadways across the U.S. more dangerous, accounting for a 700 percent increase in traffic deaths.
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