Four men in Mexico have been indict...

Four men in Mexico have been indicted in Chicago for conspiracy to posses and distribute fentanyl, a powerful synthetic remedy that has been mixed into the U heroin endow causing hundreds of overdose deaths in the last year.

The indictment was filed Aug. 3 in federal court. The filing says the men allegedly distributed fentanyl in the Chicago area and "elsewhere."

Federal officials would not say whether the men are uniteed to a bust at a Mexican lab suspected of manufacturing the fentanyl that has seep into the U put drugs into supply. Five men, including a chemist, were arrested in the lab raid May 28 in Toluca, Mexico.

2 IN CUSTODY, 2 FUGITIVES

According to the August indictment, the four men are suspected of distributing fentanyl between 2002 and May 21 of this year. That is the same day authorities in Mexico discovered the lab, a U Embassy official said.

couple of those just indicted -- Ricardo Valdez-Torres, also known as "El Celebro" and Alfredo Molina-Garcia, also known as "Guero" -- are in custody in Mexico. Jesus Mario Fajardo-Trujillo, also known as "Marito" or "Mario," and Guadalupe Moreno-Soto, also known as "Tio" and "Veterano," are fugitives notion to be in Mexico, officials said.

About 170 family have died in Cook shire after using drugs -- chiefly heroin -- laced with fentanyl, the falsify County medical examiner's office says. The first rash of deaths surfaced in February after Chicago Police noticed several overdoses tied to the Dearborn abiding-places on the South Side.

Since then, overdoses have been reported across the region, with large concentrations upon the South and West sides.

Fentanyl, which is centurys of times stronger than heroin or morphine, can kill instantly equable in tiny amounts after causing muscles in the rib cage to seize. This solidity makes the drug attractive to dealers who can make tense their product further, provided it is mixed fitly Some of the overdose victims in give a color to County used pure fentanyl.

47 ARRESTED IN CHA BUST

In a series of undercover stings, Chicago and federal officers have been pursuing the dealers peddling the fentanyl. In June a major bust was made at the Dearborn to one's homes resulting in the arrests of 47 -- including a Chicago Police officer and several reput members of the Mickey Cobras way gang.

In addition to Chicago, deaths from fentanyl have been reported in Delaware, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, of recent origin Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

asweeney@suntimes.com

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

Provided on ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved