(The Center Square) — A $700,000 grant to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation will assist the agency investigate fentanyl and opioid-related crimes and assist transparent its backlog of felony investigations, a federal lawmaker stated.
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat, introduced the grant during the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs’ Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grant Program, named for a former U.S. senator from Georgia.
In a remark, Ossoff stated the assets will “help Georgia law enforcement analyze substances, effectively investigate opioid and fentanyl related crimes, and bring perpetrators to justice.”
Like states around the nation, fentanyl, an impressive artificial opioid, has wreaked havoc in Georgia.
According to the Georgia Department of Public Health, opioid-related overdose deaths in Georgia greater by way of 207% between 2010 and 2020 and 101% between 2019 and 2021. According to the agency’s site, fentanyl, regularly present in cocaine, heroin and counterfeit drugs, used to be answerable for the rise over the previous couple of years.
An Ossoff spokeswoman didn’t ascertain whether or not the feds doled out any further grants in Georgia as a part of the Coverdell grant program. A GBI spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark at the grant.
“Fentanyl is a dangerous and highly toxic drug that has wreaked havoc in far too many communities,” Mike Register, then-director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, stated in a May news release pronouncing a 39-year-old Buford guy used to be sentenced to 12 years in federal jail for promoting fentanyl. “Disrupting the manufacturers and [distributors] of this poison remains a high priority for the GBI’s drug enforcement offices.”
Register therefore resigned to settle for the Cobb County Public Safety director position.
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