First, it was heroin, then fentanyl. Now, it’s Xylazine, a powerful animal tranquilizer also known as Tranq. It’s exploding in the Pittsburgh area and it’s taking lives.
With the click of a mouse, anyone, anywhere can buy these chemicals on the dark web and whip up a deadly dose right in their own home. Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Christopher Giordano, with the FBI in Pittsburgh says as a dad of three, this is personal.
“It scares us just as much as it scares you,” ASAC Giordano tells Channel 11 News. “Do not think that this can’t happen here because it’s already here. We have to be out there in front of the mothers who are losing their children, in front of the fathers losing children, in front of the schools, telling these people this isn’t a scare tactic.”
Deadly doses of Xylazine, often mixed with fentanyl, and sometimes pressed into a tiny pill, are killing people. And one pill can kill.
“Suburban kids, high school kids, early teens, they’re not thinking anything of it because they’re taking a pill and they think a pill isn’t going to kill like something injected into your bloodstream will,” ASAC Giordano added.