Understanding Vermont’s overdose crisis: what the 2025 social autopsy reveals
Understanding Vermont’s overdose crisis: what the 2025 social autopsy reveals
David A. Zapata, 32, who is wanted in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, was later linked to more than 5 ounces of fentanyl found in a bag in an apartment at 33 Ethan Allen Ave. that he had been using recently, officials said.
Franklin County man denies six felony charges.
Inside the home, officers reported finding evidence for the sale, manufacture, and possession of fentanyl, crack cocaine, and methamphetamine. A firearm and ammunition were also seized.
Davidson was driving the stolen vehicle, while Wooding was the authorized renter who failed to return it to the rental company, according to troopers.
A Chittenden County man has pleaded not guilty to four federal charges, including selling fentanyl within 1,000 feet of two South Burlington schools and with providing the drugs that killed one person and seriously injured another. Aldrain “Corleone” Ashby, 40, formerly of Waterbury, was ordered held Monday afternoon as a danger to the community and a risk to flee.
Despite allegedly being found in possession of 40 bags of hard drugs, the couple was clearly only mildly concerned.
DEA 2024 report shows fentanyl less ‘pure’ due to Chinese manufacturers concerns -but no less deadly.
Barbosa, a member of a violent gang in Hartford, Connecticut, called “GMS,” was trafficking large quantities of drugs to Brattleboro.
The majority of illegal border crossers were reported in New York, Washington and Vermont, The Center Square reported. In addition to arresting human traffickers and violent criminals, U.S. authorities have arrested alleged Islamic terrorists, including an Iranian with terrorist ties living in Canada and a Canadian woman who tried to poison President Donald Trump, The Center Square reported.
While fatal overdoses involving fentanyl decreased by 25% between 2022 and 2024, fentanyl continues to be the number one substance involved in opioid-related deaths, accounting for 93% of opioid fatalities in 2024.
“This has worked no where in the world but the Burlington Senators and their majority friends overrode a veto by the Governor to open this hell hole,” Ingalls adds.
Supporters of the Burlington safe injection site pilot program approved by the Legislature last year over Gov. Phil Scott’s veto pointed to the NYC facility as a success story.
Pleads not guilty to upgraded charge; Habitual offender charge added
100+ Vermonters a month die from opioid related fatality
Alleged prostitution and physical altercation in Burlington; Police execute search warrants across Chittenden County; Fight breaks out on Church and Main
A storage company analyzed the rates of substance abuse across the country by using data from the CDC, SAMHSA and the United States Census Bureau.
Police say the relationship lasted for nearly two years where Stevens allegedly sexually assaulted and was cruel to the child.
Two high-profile and dangerous inmates were seriously overcome and had to be rushed by AmCare Ambulances and correctional guards to Northwest Medical Center in St. Albans.
The shooting may be the latest in the ongoing connection of illegal activities — drugs and/or guns — flowing between Rutland and Springfield, Mass. area, officials said.
The new indictment against Bland includes a charge of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and a charge of using and carrying a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime and discharging that firearm during the offense last October.
The youths’ alleged involvement in the shootings is the latest instance of young OOS drug traffickers on either end of the fatal gunshot.
Vermont prohibited vaping sales to minors, then reaped $400K from Amazon for its failure to stop third-party vendors.
It was unclear why Jiron, the nephew of State Judge Justin Jiron, was never arrested when the grand jury indicted him on Sept. 12.
A Burlington High School graduate and school board member was arrested Sept. 16 in Holyoke, MA with thousands of glassine envelopes filled with heroin and fentanyl in his car.
Rowell would take trips to New York City to refresh the drug supply for the Bennington-based organization, authorities say.
Vermont Game Warden Dustin Snyder and his K-9, Fletch, found the body of Solomon on the evening of Oct. 2. As police combed the area the next day, Morristown Police Detective Lt. Todd Baxter located the body of White nearly a mile farther into the woods.
Maine’s Somerset County sheriff, Dale P. Lancaster, was discouraged by the number of inmates who would leave prison and die from overdoses.
VSP’s investigation determined the homicide was related to a illegal drug trafficking dispute.
“We have to remove people from the lawn when they’re sleeping here. We have to remove needles from the lawn every day. It’s been a terrible situation,” Fenimore said.
A judge in 2022 imposed a suspended sentence after the career criminal reported he was prepared to turn his life around and work with youth to keep them out of trouble. Less than four months later he was charged with a break-in.
CT and MA residents arrested separately for parts in the drug trade in Vermont/ Richard Cote, 76, found dead/ Meagan Tellier, 39, missing
Ronald Harris, 32, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 100 months in prison followed by four years of probation for his role in drug trafficking.
Danny “Miami” Daniels, 32, had been on the run from the law for 18 months when he was arrested by authorities in New Orleans last month.
There was also more gun violence in Vermont, a drug bust just across the New York border, and more.
Jeremy “O.G.” Allin, 54, now of Lancaster, N.H., will also be on federal supervised release for 3 years once he is discharged from prison.
Jeremy Starr, 46, of Newport is charged with both illegal possession of a firearm while being a felon and for knowingly possessing a firearm while using drugs.
On Tuesday, June 18, the Vermont State Police, in collaboration with the Vermont Drug Task Force, executed a search warrant at 37 Reed St., resulting in several drug-related arrests.
Drug crime – trafficking and drug use itself, dealers’ violence, desperate customers committing property crimes – is up. Police hiring is still down.
Gillespie’s sentencing follows a particularly brutal incident that occurred on September 28, 2022, at a Walgreens parking lot in Burlington.
“We’ve had people from New York City and Massachusetts living in there with the woman for months, gang members, all these people. So many drugs. It’s not any secret,” a neighbor of Gras said.
Initially, the bill would’ve decriminalized psilocybin, also known as magic mushrooms. But after a variety of doctors questioned whether there was enough research on the hallucinogenic, the Senate took it out.
The jury needed just over 3 hours before convicting Dominque “Wop” Troupe, 37, on all four felony charges he faced during the six-day trial.
Child poisoning from THC has risen 2000 percent and Vermont has one of the highest youth use rates in the nation, Antley said.
Richards claimed he has brokered crack cocaine from big drug dealers in return for guns destined for out-of-state.
More than 1.7 million illegal entries in first six months of fiscal 2024.
Upon arrival, officers were informed that one of the males had a rifle and had potentially retreated to the basement, while another group of males were reported to be hiding in a stairwell upstairs.
The bill would hold drug sellers responsible for deaths caused by their distribution of laced drugs, even if doing so was down to mere carelessness.
The police investigation indicates this was an isolated incident that arose from a drug-related dispute.
A Leicester woman and her longtime boyfriend, who was critically wounded when his brother was fatally shot last summer, pleaded not guilty Wednesday afternoon.
The murder victim, a member of a well-known local family, was associated with drug traffickers. Her bullet-riddled body was found stuffed in a metal can on the Missisquoi River.
Gov. Phil Scott is disputing a civil liberties group’s claims that the state’s top health official illegally altered a report detailing how the state should spend opioid settlement money.
Kayla Wright had been associating with Keith, who also uses the name “Anthony Borrow,” and others at the house, Labor said.
Investigation showed Kayla Wright, 29, of Derby, was shot multiple times, and at least one shot struck her in the head, killing her.
The homicide on Danby Mountain Road arose from a dispute among a group of people regarding drug trafficking and stolen firearms.
Three Massachusetts men – one just a teen – were shot to death in two separate incidents. Police have made two arrests and are holding a former Stowe man as a ‘person of interest.’
Seriously, are these people high themselves?
Hassanah “Ma” Delia, 37, pleaded not guilty in federal court on Monday to a felony charge of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and fentanyl in Vermont and elsewhere in July and August 2023.
A Glover man was bludgeoned to death in a case of mistaken identity. Until recently the cause of death also was mistaken.
About 85 grams of suspected cocaine base, 25 grams of suspected fentanyl, and multiple digital scales were found.
Especially lethal drugs are suspected. Tell your drug-abusing friends and loved ones.
S.300 would decriminalize ‘personal use’ sale of methamphetimines, depressants, LSD, ecstasy, and narcotics other than fentanyl, heroin and cocaine.
Vermont taxpayers paying for this bad behavior to stay high and unproductive in society, and to never seek help – how is that safe or right?
The bill’s sponsor says it’s up to the Health Department to establish any age-limit guidelines.
Despite being Federally illegal: Bring your own drugs! What could go wrong?
“Safe injection” sites are coming to a community near you.
A part-time Vermont resident, the mastermind of a coast-to-coast conspiracy to distribute hard drugs and launder drug money, was sentenced to 12 years.
A suspected member of the violent street gang known as The Bloods, has been arrested on federal charges of selling cocaine and conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine in Chittenden County
School officials were concerned the cops would scare or disturb the kindergarteners. A 35 gram bag of cocaine was found there after the police chief insisted on the search.
The current candidates for mayor of the Queen City are already being challenged to come up with tangible solutions to the growing drug use crisis.
As expected, things quickly went sideways. In the first year, overdose deaths rose 200 percent.
A Hartford man intoxicated with crack cocaine shot another man in the chest last week, police say.
One suspect rented from high-end Airbnbs in Stowe to help facilitate his drug trafficking for more than a year.
There was a time when we couldn’t have pictured things being worse than heroin. Then we couldn’t picture things being worse than fentanyl. Now we can’t picture things being worse than xylazine. It keeps escalating.
A New York City man, who authorities said set up a major drug distribution business from a Burlington apartment house, pleaded innocent in Vermont court Thursday.
@pnshdvermonster wrote in apparent sarcasm, “Stop fear-mongering. Burlington is perfectly safe. These clearly have nothing to do with the rampant drug use and unhoused immigrants.”
Perhaps the council will now act proactively and appropriately. Or maybe it’s too late and this has all become terminal.
Two possible rivals for governor in 2024 have roughly similar solutions for the growing, intertwined problems of homelessness and substance abuse.
At the rate that young adults are dying from overdose, being incarcerated, and ending up in recovery centers, do you need to ask, where are the young people?
Vermont once had, at least in my Normal Rockwell-esque memory, a sense of independence and a toe-hold on sanity. That place Calvin Coolidge called home. Not anymore.
Bouchard was present when Scott Lanpher, 35, of Leicester was gunned down, authorities say.
Josue Cordero, 32, and Carlos Inostroza, 30, both of Springfield, MA were taken into custody and lodged in lieu of $25,000 bail each.
A juvenile was used as a courier in “P-Nut” Ruiz’s drug operation.
The cause of Jones’s death was acute mixed drug intoxication including fentanyl, heroin and cocaine, and the manner of death was an accident.
In August 2019, both Sierra and Fuentes were arrested along with a third Springfield MA resident, Luis Martinez, on charges of trafficking fentanyl into the state.
Released by a Vermont judge on minimal bail, two accused St. J drug dealers went home to Connecticut and shot store clerks, police say. A woman 22 months pregnant survived. Another clerk didn’t.
Decriminalizing hard drug use is a good idea because ‘we know from our history that prohibition doesn’t work,’ a state senator says. Actually…..
Each state has been allocated a percentage of the settlement funds based on opioid deaths, the number of people with opioid use disorder, the amount of state opioid sales, and population.
A Philadelphia-based drug ring was raided and broken up.
Two Springfield, MA men wanted on drug crime arrest warrants were apprehended in Westmore.
Four people seeking to steal drugs are charged in the December first-degree murder of a St. Johnsbury man.
One crack dealer tried to rob another crack dealer. As a result, one of them died, and the other faces a possible life sentence.
14 months in federal for cocaine distribution.
A Springfield, Massachusetts suspected fentanyl dealer was arrested in the Hastings Street apartment in September.
A recent multi-agency drug raid in Springfield Vermont has yielded arrests of a Springfield MA man and several others.
A former basketball star and longtime drug addict was arrested for criminal threatening in West Rutland.
Shawn Santoro was arguing over drug territory in Hartford, CT when he shot a man on October 4, court records say.
An alleged cocaine and fentanyl distribution ring has been interrupted by a federal grand jury indictment.
Badgley’s license was fully reinstated in 2020, and then suspended on September 24, 2021 when the Board became aware of the new allegations of tampering.
5,500 bags of fentanyl for personal use? That’s what a man arrested on I-91 last week told police.