Northwest Regional Drug and Gang Task Force Raising Awareness After Spike in Overdoses

The Northwest Virginia Regional Drug and Gang Task Force is raising awareness after seeking a spike in overdoses, and overdose deaths, in the northwest corner of the Commonwealth.   Between Feb. 10, 2024, and Feb. 24, 2024, the Northwest Task Force has seen 11 overdoses, including five deaths.   In comparison, there were only five overdoses, including one death, between Jan. 1, 2024, and Feb. 10, 2024.

“The past few weeks have made the threat we face from fentanyl apparent,” said Chief Kahle Magalis with the Front Royal Police Department.  “We want to caution the public and make them aware of exactly how lethal fentanyl can be.”

In addition to the spike in overdoses and fatalities, the task force has seized approximately four times the amount of fentanyl in the first two months of 2024 as the task force did in all of 2023.

Recently, the ten local and state law enforcement member agencies of the Task Force encouraged area residents to take advantage of Virginia’s public, anti-drug awareness initiative “One Pill Can Kill.” The initiative was launched by the Office of the Virginia Attorney General and is modeled after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) national campaign. The campaign additionally supports Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s Executive Order 26*, which aims to strengthen Virginia’s interdiction and enforcement response to the current fentanyl crisis.

“Every pill we take off the street is a potential overdose prevented,” says Town of Strasburg Police Chief Wayne W. Sager, Command Board Chair of the Northwest Virginia Regional Drug and Gang Task Force.  “We need the public to be aware of how dangerous this problem is, and to avoid drug use.”

Last week, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares launched the campaign’s new www.onepillcankillva.org website that features a variety of preventative and educational resources for Virginians of all ages to learn more about the deadly dangers of fake prescription pills containing lethal substances like fentanyl.

According to the OAG, an estimated 1,967 people died from overdoses of fentanyl or other synthetic opioids in Virginia in 2022. Fentanyl, the synthetic opioid most commonly found in fake pills, is the primary driver in this alarming increase in poisoning deaths.

The Northwest Virginia Drug and Gang Task Force is comprised of law enforcement personnel from Clarke, Frederick, Page, Warren, and Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Departments, Front Royal, Luray, Strasburg, and Winchester Police Departments and the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Culpeper Field Office.