DEA taking text tips on W. Pa. heroin overdoses

January 29, 2014 at 2:24p.m.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The federal Drug Enforcement Administration has begun a texting tip line so people can anonymously provide information on heroin and fentanyl overdoses that have killed at least 22 drug users in western Pennsylvania.

Heroin found at the scenes of at least some of 22 suspected overdose deaths also contained fentanyl, a synthetic morphine substitute up to 100 times more powerful than morphine.

Federal state and local law enforcement officials are trying to stop the deaths and hope to prosecute whoever’s been supplying the drugs.

Anyone can send information to the DEA by texting it to “Tip411” (847411). Investigators want tipsters to include the keyword “PGHOD” — short for Pittsburgh overdoses — in the message.

The deadly mixture has been found in Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Lawrence and Westmoreland counties.