WHEN music icon Prince died of an accidental fentanyl overdose in 2016, few people had heard of the drug.
The singer, 57, was found unresponsive in a lift in his Paisley Park mansion, and a toxicology report confirmed his tragic fate.
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Now, nine years on, fentanyl has a vice-like grip on US society, devastating everyone from high profile celebrities to everyday families across the country.
Rappers Mac Miller and Coolio, rock star Tom Petty and actors Michael K Williams and Angus Cloud all lost their lives to the drug, while singer Demi Lovato survived but was left with life-changing side effects.
And the fentanyl crisis is showing no signs of going away as dealers use it to lace other drugs to maximise their profits.
In a new documentary, Fame and Fentanyl, James Essig, former NYPD chief of detectives, explains: “Fentanyl is relatively cheap while heroin is expensive.
“You take a kilo of heroin and then add in a tiny bit of fentanyl and stretch it out for more profitability.”
Fentanyl is an opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.
Opioid addiction became rife in America during the 90s when pharmaceutical companies flooded the market with super-strong painkillers.
But when the government began to crackdown in the 2000s, the Mexican drug cartels spotted a gap in the market and moved in with heroin, and before long they started adding fentanyl to juice up its potency.
Raymond Donovan, former Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) chief of operations, says: “That really started the wave of the opioid crisis that we are in now.
“Very quickly it went from increasing the strength of heroin to pure fentanyl. You had kilos coming across the south west border.
“The Mexican cartels started buying fentanyl directly from China, pressing it into pills and then selling it as if it was a known opioid, like something that was made by a scientist in a laboratory, but it is not, it is a fake pill.”
It was two years after Prince’s death when investigators finally released their findings.
They had found counterfeit Vicodin pills in his house, laced with fentanyl – but police were unable to establish who had provided the drugs.
‘Wake-up call’
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Prince’s death put fentanyl in the headlines, but it wasn’t long before another famous name was tragically linked to the drug.
The following year rock n roll legend Tom Petty was found dead – and two forms of illicit fentanyl were found in his system.
He was also using a medically supplied fentanyl patch for pain caused by a fractured hip.
His family released a statement saying they wanted his death to act as a wake-up call in a bid to save others from suffering their heartbreak.
But the opioid crisis was only just starting. In 2018 more than 30,000 people died of fentanyl overdoses – up by 10 per cent – and in July that year singer Demi Lovato almost lost her life.
The star had been open about her struggles with drug addiction and had been in and out of rehab.
Entertainment journalist Chris Witherspoon explains: “Despite years of sobriety Demi Lovato went out with some friends in Hollywood, ran into a dealer she knew and she got some heroin that was laced with fentanyl.”
Speaking about her ordeal Demi said: “I had three strokes, I had a heart attack. I suffered brain damage from the strokes. I can’t drive any more.”
I had three strokes, I had a heart attack. I suffered brain damage from the strokes. I can’t drive any more
Demi Lovato
Her survival was down to being given the drug Narcan in hospital which helps to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
It was a huge wake-up call with celebrities including Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake and Ariana Grande sending her public messages of support.
But another celeb was not going to be as lucky as Demi. Just two months later rapper Mac Miller was found dead at the age of just 26.
Like Demi he had been open about his own struggles with addiction, writing about it in his music.
Investigators discovered he had been looking to buy oxycodone, but ended up with something laced with fentanyl.
Miller’s drug dealer and the men who supplied him with the drugs were later jailed.
‘Who sold my daughter death?’
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But it isn’t just celebrities that have fallen victim to the fentanyl crisis sweeping America.
Thousands of ordinary families have been left grieving the deaths of their loved ones, too.
Matt Capelouto lost his college student daughter Alex to the drug in December 2019.
“We didn’t know anything about fentanyl at the time,” he says. “Lots of things were going through my head and this was a period of shock.”
Alex, 20, had contacted a drug dealer on Snapchat looking to buy the prescription painkiller Perocet.
But what he, in fact, delivered to her was counterfeit pills made with lethal doses of fentanyl.
I wanted to find out who this drug dealer was. Who sold my daughter death?
Matt Capelouto
“My daughter took half of one of these pills before going to bed and my wife found her dead in her bed the next morning,” says heartbroken Matt.
“I wanted to find out who this drug dealer was. Who sold my daughter death?”
They eventually got into Alex’s phone and discovered the identity of the drug dealer.
But the family were told that the dealer was unlikely to face any charges as California does not have a death by dealer statute that holds dealers responsible for users’ deaths.
But the case was taken over for federal prosecution, which has a different burden of proof, and the dealer, Brandon McDowell, was charged with one count of distributing fentanyl resulting in death and jailed for nine years.
Matt says: “Locking up a drug dealer won’t bring my daughter back, but it will save someone else’s child.”
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Michael K Williams, star of TV series The Wire and Boardwalk Empire, was the next celeb to lose their life after taking fentanyl-laced heroin in 2021.
He had been open about his battle with addiction, and just five days before his death spoke on a podcast about how acting offered him a road to recovery.
Two weeks after he passed away the New York City Medical Examiner said he died from an unintentional overdose from a deadly mix of drugs including fentanyl.
In April 2023, drug dealer Irvin Cartagena pleaded guilty to selling the mix of heroin and fentanyl to Williams that resulted in his death. He was jailed for 10 years.
‘Mass overdose’ parties
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In September 2021 comedian and presenter Kate Quigley went to a party in Venice, California, where she and her friends thought they were using cocaine, but it contained fentanyl.
Kate passed out, fell over and was unconscious for 17 hours. She woke up disorientated, unable to move her legs, and then made a harrowing discovery.
Three of her friends were lying dead; comedian Fuquan Johnson, Natalie Williamson and Enrico Colangeli had suffered fatal overdoses.
The dealer was never identified.
Washington Post reporter Nick Miroff says: “One of the many tragedies of the fentanyl epidemic in the United States is this repeat of mass overdose events.
“A group of friends partying together and they think they are buying cocaine or some other drug, and they don’t know that what they are buying is laced with fentanyl and because they don’t have any opioid tolerance, they drop dead.
“So that’s why we have seen horrible crime scenes with three, four, five adults on the floor at a party where they have literally died in a couple of minutes.”
Used as weapon
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In July 2022, cops discerned a shocking new twist in the fentanyl story.
The drug was now being used as a weapon by robbery gangs, and a famous fashion designer was one of their victims.
Katie Gallagher, who had designed for Rita Ora and Lady Gaga, was found dead in her bed.
Police told her parents that Katie had died from an overdose – but she had been murdered.
Detectives had uncovered a robbery crew that was using drugs laced with fentanyl to incapacitate victims before using facial recognition technology to open their phones and empty their bank accounts.
One of the many tragedies of the fentanyl epidemic in the United States is this repeat of mass overdose events
Nick Miroff
Police believed Katie had been given what she thought was cocaine, but it was laced with fentanyl.
Police arrested and charged Kenwood Allen, 33, in relation to five deaths and a drugging and robbery spree targeting a total of 21 victims.
He pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
In September 2022, rapper Coolio became the next victim of fentanyl.
At first it was thought he had died of an asthma attack, but the medical examiner’s report revealed he had died from an accidental overdose of heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl.
Irrepressible flood
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The authorities are struggling to stop the flow of fentanyl from Mexico into the US.
The drug is so compact and so potent that it is easy for the cartels to smuggle it across the border.
In 2023, Homeland Security launched Operation Blue Lotus to try to stop the flood.
And the US targeted the Chinese suppliers that were selling fentanyl to the cartels.
But despite the Government efforts the fentanyl crisis continued to spread across America and claimed the life of yet another of Hollywood’s brightest stars.
Actor Angus Cloud was just 25 when he died at his family home in California.
He shot to fame playing a drug dealer in the hit series Euphoria. But his own struggle with addiction after suffering an ankle injury and losing his dad to cancer made him vulnerable.
He was found to have died of an accidental overdose of a cocktail of drugs, including fentanyl.
Since then the DEA launched the ‘One pill can kill’ campaign in a bid to raise awareness of the dangers of the drug, and for the first time in five years the number of overdose deaths reduced.
In April 2024 President Joe Biden signed the Fend off Fentanyl Act into law, a sanctions and anti-money laundering bill to help combat the country’s fentanyl crisis by targeting opioid traffickers devastating America’s communities.
In 2024, the DEA seized more than 60 million fentanyl-laced fake pills and nearly 8,000 pounds of fentanyl powder.
The 2024 seizures are equivalent to more than 380 million lethal doses of fentanyl.
Fame and Fentanyl is available to stream on Crime and Investigation Play from 10pm Wednesday 3 September.
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