Syracuse drug raid nets fentanyl, crack cocaine, cash, state police say

A Syracuse apartment on South Edwards Avenue yielded fentanyl, crack cocaine, cash and drug-packaging materials that state police said pointed to more than simple possession. Investigators seized about 154.7 grams of fentanyl, about 115.7 grams of crack cocaine, $14,768 in U.S. currency and three digital scales containing cocaine residue, along with plastic sandwich bags and other packaging supplies.

New York State Police said the case grew out of a month-long narcotics investigation involving the Violent Gang and Narcotics Enforcement Team. On April 17, investigators executed search warrants at 100 South Edwards Avenue, Apartment 1, and on 38-year-old Christopher L. Smith. Smith was charged with two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree for intent to sell, one tied to crack cocaine and one tied to fentanyl, plus criminal use of drug paraphernalia in the second degree. He was arraigned and sent to the Onondaga County Justice Center without bail.

The seizure lands in a county where fentanyl has become a growing share of overdose deaths and where public officials have spent years treating opioid misuse as a public-health crisis. Onondaga County executive materials said the county recorded more than 140 opioid-related deaths in 2016, then saw a 41% decline in 2017, but also noted that fentanyl was increasingly being found locally. The Onondaga County Health Department says it uses public-health surveillance to track opioid use and that the proportion of deaths involving fentanyl has continued to rise over time.

That makes the scale of this raid especially significant. Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says even small amounts can be deadly. A seizure of more than 150 grams, paired with crack cocaine, scales and packaging material, suggests a distribution operation that could have fed street-level sales in Syracuse neighborhoods and added to the overdose risk facing Onondaga County.

The case also fits a recent enforcement pattern. On April 2, state police and VGNET concluded another Syracuse narcotics investigation at 1309 N. Salina St., Apt. 1, where troopers said they seized 414 grams of fentanyl, 33.7 grams of crack cocaine, packaging materials, two digital scales with cocaine residue and a collapsible baton. With Smith’s case still open, state police are continuing a crackdown that has repeatedly turned up high-volume fentanyl and cocaine stashes inside city apartments.