After an 18-year-old student at Kansas State University died in 2017 of a fentanyl drug overdose, federal authorities launched a large-scale investigation that led to the indictment of more than 50 people, the U.S. attorney said Wednesday.
“Fentanyl and heroin are a deadly combination,” U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said. “Our goal is to save lives by disrupting the pipelines bringing these and other poisons to the city (of) Manhattan.”
An indictment filed last week and unveiled Wednesday alleged the student got the drugs from a drug trafficking organization made up of five conspirators who are among 54 defendants whose names appear in one of 13 grand jury indictments.
In addition to heroin and fentanyl, other drugs that traffickers are accused of distributing include ecstasy, marijuana, methamphetamine and hydrocodone.
Law enforcement officers called the investigation Operation Chicago Connection, based on the fact that in 2016 investigators began to hear talk on the streets of Manhattan, Kansas, about traffickers who some sources called “the Chicago Boys.” In the following months, investigators worked to get a clearer picture of what was going on. What they learned was that some traffickers were making regular trips to Chicago to bring back heroin, fentanyl and other drugs.
Law enforcement officers were out in force Tuesday, serving arrest warrants and search warrants in Manhattan as part of a federal takedown that was one of the largest in state history. Defendants were scheduled to begin making initial appearances in federal court in Topeka Wednesday.