Dope (2017) s01e02 Episode Script
Once You See It, You Can Never Unsee It
[police shouting.]
[sirens ringing.]
[man.]
That's the first how Fentanyl really flooded the streets.
It's the first time it became big.
[sirens ringing.]
[paramedic.]
How much heroin did you use? They wanna pass out, they wanna die.
They wanna to OD.
And they getting the fuck they looking for.
- Give me some space.
- breach, breach, breach! We are dealing with the worst of the worst.
There is true evil out there in the world, And sometimes, we deal with that in the human form.
[gunshots.]
[Lewis.]
The heroin is going to break you in half.
It's going to crumble you to your knees.
It's just gonna fuck you up.
I have remorse sometimes, I feel bad.
I think about some of the shit I have done to people, but, I ain't no monster.
I seen my sister Freddie Gray rise, That was like one of the best things, that could've ever happened for the dope game.
They making laws everyday that's in our favor, man.
It's no more plainclothes police officers in the state of Maryland anymore.
I love that law.
I'm like a Boss for real.
You're not going to really get to much higher than me, on the street level.
I got like, four or five blocks around here.
I got another block across town.
[Narrator.]
Lewis has been at the top of Baltimore's heroin business, for over 10 years.
My job is just basically to go around and collect money, [sirens ringing.]
making sure nobody run out of drugs, and that shit running like clockwork.
[Narrator.]
But today his blocks are running dry.
[Lewis.]
The last thing you want to do, is have your little niggas call you, "we need some more, we need some more", And I ain't got it.
And when a Junkie see that you ain't got it, they're not coming back around here for at least another week or so.
[Narrator.]
To hold on to his customers, Lewis needs to resupply, and fast.
I know it sounds greedy, but it's like you got to be a little bit.
You gotta get every dollar, you know what I mean.
[Lewis.]
So, I just got off the phone with my plug.
We're real cautious, he told me to meet him out of the county.
[Narrator.]
Lewis has to venture 35 miles north from his Turf in West Baltimore, To Harford County, to meet his plug.
[Lewis.]
Right now, we're getting out of the County Part.
One wrong move man and your ass is gone.
[Narrator.]
One of five counties that border the city, Harford, is a middle class suburb.
But the open space is comfortable condos, belie a growing heroin problem.
And an epidemic of fatal overdoses.
The community here, has had enough.
[gunshots.]
Police, search warrant, Police searcher! [Dunbar.]
It's just devastating, parents aren't supposed to be burying their children.
We as cops, we're not immune.
There's plenty of us, That have children or close loved ones, that are suffering from heroin addiction.
[Narrator.]
Now Harford County Law Enforcement is making a stand.
And dealers are in their sights.
That's our objective as Law Enforcement Officers, to get those guys off the street.
It is us against them.
[Narrator.]
Tactical training has become a a regular fixture, and it's paying off.
Drug seizures are up, and local judges are passing tougher sentences.
[Lewis.]
This time he had me meet him and shit It's heroin bro.
250g Straight rocks.
That's how you know you got good plug, you feel me? This shit is shipped straight from Afghanistan.
Let's get the fuck out of here man.
Ain't no room for error, None.
[Narrator.]
Dunbar has intel on a dealer who's moving heroin, back to the city.
[Lewis.]
I'll never really say that to nobody but, I hate this shit, I'm as scared as shit, man.
Okay, surveillance just advised, our target is at the local gas station.
He's at the pumps right now.
If we can get him boxed in, and get him in custody rather quickly before he can get to a firearm, They won't think twice about killing me, or one of my guys when we making a vehicle rip.
A lot of these guys have said, they don't want to go back to jail.
[indistinctive chatter on radio.]
Chris you just give me the green light.
[indistinctive chatter on radio.]
What did he say? Get it ready, get it ready.
[officer.]
He's right there, - [on radio.]
I'll block him in.
- Go, block him in.
[Narrator.]
The cops try to cut him off, But the suspect is too quick for them.
[Lee.]
Stop.
[sirens rinigng.]
[transmission noises.]
We don't know where [on radi.]
 Probably long gone.
It's frustrating to get that close but, That's tough.
at least nobody got hurt, that's the main thing.
[Narrator.]
But not all of the officers are unscathed.
[officer.]
He's cutting through here, I go to get out and he clips the door, whacks my shin, So I get back in the car, so there's nothing there.
Oh yeah, right here.
A scratch.
Well there go the law right there, you don't want to fuck with them.
[Narrator.]
Lucky for Lewis, the Hartford cops are busy with someone else.
[Lewis.]
That's a big weight off my chest and shit.
It's been at $11k but I'm looking to get, at least 23 bands back at least 23k, something around there.
We gonna hit this shit.
[Narrator.]
To turn the stash into cash, a long night's work lies ahead.
[Narrator.]
Lewis is meeting with his lieutenant, Dread.
[Lewis.]
Nigga Dreads.
Motherfuckers don't play with my lieutenant.
[Lewis.]
He one of my key players like I need him.
he's my eyes and ears.
It's that good shit too that brown shit.
As he picks up the Dope, he'll cut it up.
Take it to all the blocks for me, where I need him to take it to, get the money back from them, bring it to me, he do everything for me, as far as being out in the streets.
And I'm just like really behind the scenes with the shit.
Be careful.
On the outside looking in, it look like he's the boss.
You don't fucking know about me, you know that I exist.
So yeah, mission accomplished man.
Another successful day.
[Dread.]
I'm responsible for making sure it get delivered to certain people and I'm responsible for getting a certain amount of money back from If the money don't come back properly, then, we gonna have a problem [Narrator.]
As midnight approaches, Dredd moves that dope to a stash house to mix it with a special additive.
"Raw" is raw heroin, that straight dope with nothing on there.
Put the Fentanyl on there, you got you a monster.
These days, most blows if it ain't got the Fentanyl on there They don't even want it.
Everybody damn near cutting it with the fent.
Now the fiends got a whiff of that shit and that's all they want.
[Narrator.]
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, 50 times more powerful than heroin.
It's used to give the dope an edge.
People probably don't want to hear this you could kill a fiend off the dope and your strip is going to bang.
it's going to do numbers.
meaning it's going to be jumping.
The more fiends you kill, the more they chasing the dope.
You drop a fiend, the more money you gonna get.
[Narrator.]
Fentanyl is the new k iller ingredient that's responsible for America's current overdose epidemic.
I got these gloves on cause, you know the dope's strong.
It'll get in your pores.
[Narrator.]
Black runs one of Lewis's most profitable blocks.
It's his job to add the deadly Fentanyl cut.
This shit can get in your system, this shit's strong.
[Narrator.]
The addition of Fentanyl effectively hides the other cheap chemicals he uses to bulk out the raw heroin.
[Narrator.]
All added to stretch the raw heroin and maximize profits.
[Black.]
These are Double-O's.
most people got clear capsules, so we try to use blue and white so they know it our shit.
You get a lot of people trying to use your name.
but they can get colored pills too.
Motherfucker do that.
Motherfucker do that.
This is a morning drug.
People want their gate shot.
Before they go to work, five o'clock in the morning.
Shit like that.
We come out from five to seven.
At seven o'clock the shop is closed.
[Narrator.]
While Black repairs the days heroin, his crew assemble, watched over by Lewis's lieutenant and chief enforcer.
Dredd.
It's not like if you work and you fuck up something in the store, the store has insurance to cover that.
Out here in the game, it's not the same way.
If I catch you stealing, we'll break your fucking fingers.
Anything can happen, it depends on how we feeling.
At the end of the day you fucked that bread up.
and you as good as dead, I don't give a fuck who you are.
I ain't going to lie shit can get serious.
[Narrator.]
As dawn approaches addicts all over the city, are waking up to withdrawal symptoms.
Between the two of us we need 150, $200 a day just to stay functional.
We don't even get high off the stuff, it's just a survival.
[Narrator.]
Sean and Courtney are counting the minutes till the block opens for business.
People that don't use it, [laughs.]
they don't believe that they're using it, just to feel better.
They think they're using it just because they want to get high.
and feel good and stuff but they don't understand addiction.
Physical and mental and the physical part of it is awful.
Without it, we literally lay there on the floor and lay there on piles of sweat.
Freezing cold and hot sweat.
Tossing and turning all day long for hours.
Can't get up and go hustle any money because you are so ill.
Bones hurt, legs are weak, can't walk.
Diarrhoea, vomiting, hot and cold sweats, it's horrible.
[Sean.]
It's a horrible, horrible thing.
I had a normal life.
The American dream, the wife, the kids, the car.
A small business, money in the bank.
Everything.
I was at work, I had a slip and fall accident and broke my back.
I was in a wheelchair for almost 2 years.
After 4 years of pain medication, surgeries and everything else, The insurance company said, "We're done with you have a nice life".
And the pain medication stopped but the addiction didn't.
I couldn't afford to buy the pills off the street anymore so, you got to the new corner store and buy heroin.
My grandma moved and I became homeless.
I wasn't ready for it so I went on the streets to prostitution, to get money to support my habit.
Damn, here we are in a vacant house, with no running water, and barely any electricity.
Then the people that actually I was getting high with at first, They're dead.
- OD'd - Death has become so common.
I've seen a lot of people die right in front of me.
The drug dealers don't know the actual measurement The comparisons between Fentanyl and heroin.
They don't know how much Fentanyl equals this much heroin.
the drug dealers are just playing with it putting a little bit in and putting it out to test it and see how people like it.
You know, if you don't have a good tolerance built up You do something like that and it's got a bit too much, you're dead.
I really don't just know off hand like, this would go with this thing, this ain't going to kill him or, we don't know until we try.
It's just the experience, that's all it is.
Recently, I didn't know how much I was putting on, and I put too much I gave it to somebody, They was like "it's alright", so I knew I can put some more on there.
So I spread some more.
This is what's killing people out there.
But that's what they want.
They need the strong shit.
They want to OD.
And they get what the fuck they're looking for.
[Narrator.]
At the stroke of 5, Black hits the corner with the freshly cut scramble.
[Narrator.]
And the block opens for business.
We got the corner men right there, holding us down.
And you got corner men up there, holding us down, [Narrator.]
It's a well oiled machine, and every crew member has a specific role.
The corner men would just sit at the corner.
and just yells out "12".
That's what we call the police around here.
I might give them $50 a day, depends how the block goes.
If we have a good day, I might give them $100.
[Black.]
Then you got your hitters.
The hitters are the ones that are serving all the people.
They get $50 off of every 25 pills.
They do a hundred pills, that's like two or $300 easy.
I've been out here for real since I was a kid.
About nine or ten, something like that.
My living conditions weren't right as a kid.
I wanted more.
[Narrator.]
Hitters are crucial to the operation but run the greatest risks.
See, shit going down, you never know what can happen.
You hear shit like that everyday.
That shit is nothing new, I don't even flinch, when I hear that no more.
I see it everyday for real.
You gotta be focused on everything and everybody thats coming through.
All the calls because, I'm talking to y'all but as you see I'm looking everywhere.
Got to.
Niggas do shit, fiends do shit, police do shit.
People that ain't doing nothing do shit.
[The Hitter.]
You can't really even plan for the next day.
You gotta pray that you even make it to the next day.
The next second can alternated your whole life.
[Narrator.]
As his crew works, the boss, Lewis watches from a nearby trap house.
[Lewis.]
The young dudes coming up they see me, they see my crew, everybody I roll with we got money we got cars, We got the girls, we got all the respect in the neighborhood.
We don't have problems, like we run shit.
So it's like, I want to be that person.
I know you want to be me.
You know you can tell him anything.
A lot of times, what you will notice is there parents are on drugs.
So there parents aren't taking very good care of them.
They are gullible so, I'm gonna exploit that.
[Narrator.]
By now, the block is in full swing.
[Black.]
People coming from county and shit like that.
That's where the money comes from the out-of-towners.
They come to that bitch and buy packs, whole packs, twenty five packs.
Trying to spend $300 $200, they want grams and shit.
On a good day we might do, probably like four hundred pills.
That's like $4000.
That's all in like, hours.
[Narrator.]
With so much money to be made every boss is looking to expand their turf.
[Lewis.]
Ideally, you want to find a good easy block with nobody right there.
Or maybe like some little young dudes right there that ain't got much respect.
And you just tell him, get the fuck out of here scram.
Most times, they usually gonna buck first of all.
No, ain't nobody selling nothing here, this is my block.
Alright this is what's up, I'm gonna come right back with my big ass gun, I'm going to come back with like 3 niggas with me, and they got big ass choppers on then and we won't let him know, You'll get the fuck from right here don't come back right here.
If I see you back here, I'll bust your fucking head.
[gunshots.]
Taking over the show shit now you feel me.
Get you some junkies on the block, start feeding them, get them little bit of blow.
They'll let you come in the house, shit like that.
After that, you're rolling for real.
And then by word of mouth, if you got good heroin they gonna come back.
Before you know it give it two, three days.
You're doing $1000 a day.
You know, that's easy.
[Narrator.]
Back outside, Lewis goes to get some feedback from his customers.
[Lewis.]
It's overlooked a lot but, the junkie in the dope boy they go hand in hand.
It's peanut butter jelly, they need me.
Because, they need me to get them their shit.
You know what I'm saying, I need them because how good am I sitting here with heroin, if I don't got somebody that's going to fucking buy it.
Without them, there is no me.
See junkies man's, they'll kill for this shit.
That's just sad they would kill for this shit.
I've seen junkies with eight year olds, ten year olds, Prostituting their daughter's man saying, "hey do you want to have sex with my daughter give me two pills".
I need $20.
You know, it's just sick bro, they'd do anything.
Anything.
Some of this shit is just heartbreaking man inhumane type shit, you feel me? [Lewis.]
You see these beautiful girls man, maybe come from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, all the way down here just to get some good dope.
I used to see them over a period of time, their fucking demise bro, the dope, the heroin.
One thing about this shit, it's going to break you in half.
It's going to crumble you to your knees bro.
You're fucking skins going to turn oily.
You're going to get sores on your fucking arms, your legs are going to swell up, your eyes get fucking distorted, your hair starts falling out, teeth turn rotten.
It's just going to fuck you up man.
[phone ringing.]
Yeah.
[Narrator.]
Sean's got ten bucks.
Just enough to get his fix.
But Courtney needs to hustle up some money if she's going to get well.
[Sean.]
Be careful.
- [Courtney.]
Love you.
- Love you too.
[Narrator.]
But she only has one thing to sell.
[Sean.]
Human life is cheap around here, it's just means nothing.
Especially this younger generation, these young kids.
It's nothing to pull the trigger and kill somebody, They don't think twice about it.
The most shocking thing I saw was a guy asked to buy some drugs And a guy walked up behind him and shot him right in the face.
He got his brains splattered all over my face right in front of me.
It was a horrible, horrible thing.
The people to live here, they just step over it and keep going, like it's an everyday thing.
[Sean.]
Go head and go upstairs.
I'm gonna be stripping in front of y'all but it's only thing I can hit anymore.
[Sean.]
Now it's sore as shit going in the same spot, in my right hip, But you get it done really easy It's a nice big vain.
And just like that.
[sirens ringing.]
[Narrator.]
Just a few miles south of the block in Anne Arundel County, the emergency services are struggling to keep up with the overdoses.
[Garry.]
Since we border so close to Baltimore City, most of our addicts from the county are going over there and purchasing it, and they're coming back to the county and using it.
Which is causing a lot of overdoses.
[siren ringing.]
[Narrator.]
Officer Jones is responding to a call out for an OD, it's a race against time.
The longer the overdosing addict is left untreated, the more likely they'll die.
[baby crying.]
[paramedic.]
What's your middle name Tyler? What's your middle name? How much heroin did you use? Half cap? Whole cap? [Narrator.]
It looks like this addict will survive.
[Garry.]
We very often get calls like this.
There's a lot of overdoses, and a lot of heroin moving in the streets.
They're lucky, I mean very well could have been fatal.
[voices on radio.]
[Narrator.]
Within minutes reports come through of another incident.
Okay.
[sirens ringing.]
We're going to head over to Western District of Ana.
A fatal heroin overdose over in Severn.
This is a very wealthy neighborhood.
If you're looking to try and get heroin, it's just not where i'd be looking at, I can tell you that.
[Garry.]
You see dead bodies all time and it's just part of the job.
and you gotta be strong enough to handle that every day, day in and day out.
Do you think that the dealers care? No, or they wouldn't sell it.
I think they're out for their own well-being trying to make more money.
and everyone has morals everyone there is was correct and what's your not.
You know that what you're selling this person and what you're handing them can possibly kill them but you don't care because all you want is that $10 off them.
It's just not right.
[officers shouting.]
[Narrator.]
But the fight is back on.
Over in Harford County, police are doing a sweep to get intel on the heroin wholesaler responsible for a string of deaths.
[officer.]
We need someone to come check you out.
[Narrator.]
The same dealer, who ran their car just days ago.
We've got four young people we can put on this guy that are now dead because of a drug that he provided them.
[Narrator.]
Toxicology reports from his victims have revealed that terrifying development This dealer, it's pushing heroin laced with a new and even deadlier cut called Carfentanyl.
[Lee.]
We know that it's a hundred times more potent than heroin and up to 10000 times more potent than morphine.
So carfetynal's extremely deadly even in the smallest amounts.
Up to two or three grains is enough to kill a human being.
[Narrator.]
The sweep is giving them fresh intel on the dealers movements.
[Lee.]
If we know they're the source of supply, the drugs that are coming into our county, we're going to go there and get them.
[Narrator.]
To take him down, Hartford cops need to cross the county line.
[voices on radio.]
[Narrator.]
Dunbar and his team have trailed their suspect to a gas station.
Alright he's there at the gas pumps.
We're going to stage right up here right above the gas station, as soon as he comes out of the store.
We're going to make sure he doesn't get away this time we're going to try and seal off every exit.
And we're going to try to get him boxed in really tight.
[on radio.]
Go now.
Got a kid with him.
Alright he's got a small child and so we're going to be careful here.
The subjects in custody.
Sever here to your right.
We're searching the vehicle right now and to sure there's no evidence or weapons in there.
The main objective is to get that evidence so we can tie him directly to those four fatal overdose tests.
We need to be very swift in our tactics.
Which we were and got him in custody before he even knew what happened.
[Narrator.]
There's nothing in his car to tie him to the fatal overdoses.
Now we're going to execute the search warrant on his house, which is approximately half a mile that way.
[on radio.]
Hey dude, be aware that there are subjects here at the gas station that are familiar with this little girl.
- [officer.]
Compromised - [Lee.]
We're done.
[on radio.]
Okay.
[Narrator.]
Word of the arrest is already spreading.
And the cops need to storm the suspect's house before anyone can destroy any evidence.
[voices on radio.]
[officer.]
Give me some space.
[officer.]
Police with a search warrant! Breach, breach, breach! Police with a search warrant! Slow and steady.
[officer.]
Move forward.
How many got down? Search warrant! You're downstairs.
- Clear in here.
- It's clear.
[Narrator.]
They need to find something linking the dealer to one of the victims.
[officer.]
Knocking notes.
- I got crack.
- Is that crack? There's more down here too I just got to get it all.
[Narrator.]
It's not drugs they're after, It's information.
[officer.]
We got it.
[Narrator.]
But it doesn't take long to find a list of the dealers customers.
[Lee.]
What did you guys get? We got a piece of paper with our victims phone number on it.
That's great.
We're getting ready to interview him now.
See what he says about that.
That's good man.
It's pretty convincing evidence.
[Narrator.]
It's time to try to flip the dealer To see if they can trace the source of the killer Carfentanyl.
[officer.]
You got a pretty bad criminal history.
That'll put you in jail for a long time but that's the least of your concerns.
Your biggest concern, is that your body on you.
Okay, you have a good body on you.
Listen, there's three other bodies on you in Baltimore county.
So you'll probably be charged another three times.
We are going to prosecute you federally.
- That carries a 20 year mandatory sentence.
- [dealer.]
Sir I don"t need That's twenty years in prison.
I'm going to put four bodies on you.
You're gonna be sentenced to 80 years in Federal Prison.
I don't want to go to jail.
You just got to help us man.
People are fucking dying.
[dealer.]
I didn't try and kill anybody officer.
My aunt OD'd off heroin.
My father, he OD'd off heroin.
So, I know I'm not like one of them people who don't have a heart.
I have a heart, I have a real big heart.
[officer.]
Where is the Carfentanyl coming from my friend.
Sit down, sit down, you have to sit.
- [officer.]
Where did it come from? - [dealer.]
That's the thing about it.
I'm giving you this one chance.
Okay you're looking to spend the rest of your life in jail.
- Where is it coming from? - We're trying to stop people from dying.
And there are four people dead.
- [officer.]
My stuff.
- From stuff that you put on the street.
- Come on, let's go.
- I ain't selling drugs to anybody.
I don't have no Carfentanyl.
I don't have no heroin.
I ain't killed nobody.
[Narrator.]
Even with a life sentence hanging over him the dealer refuses to give up his supplier.
[Lee.]
So we'll transport him down to central booking And hopefully, Baltimore city courts will hold him long enough until we can get him indicted on the fatal overdose.
[Lee.]
The Baltimore city court system, quite frankly, it's not good.
Most of their jails and intake facilities down here are already maxed out.
You're out here locking these guys up, getting them off the streets.
But the courts are turning around and letting them back out again.
They need to be taken off the streets for good I'm talking life sentences.
[Narrator.]
With the penal system failing, and new synthetic opioid is offering bigger profits, Baltimore's heroin business is booming like never before.
[Sean.]
I couldn't imagine being a child and growing up in this city.
There's heroin on literally every corner and every neighborhood.
They're either going to grow up to be a drug addict or drug dealer.
That's all they're exposed to from time they can comprehend anything.
[Lewis.]
I think it's not just us, the dope boys, that have fucked the neighborhood up man.
I feel like a police failed us.
The school system failed us.
The city has failed us.
[Lewis.]
When we leave outside of Baltimore go to a different place, you see that, other place aren't fucked up like this.
But that's all we know, all we know is this shit.
Here, It's dirty and everybody's mad.
Look at this shit, would you be mad? I'd be mad too.
[gunshots.]
[Lee.]
It is a war on drugs.
Is there a clear winner right now? No, there's not.
[officer shouting.]
A lot of people say, well it's a war you'll never win.
But we got to keep fighting it, we can't this let what goes on every day out on the streets.
We can't let open air drug markets exist.
We can't let shootings during the middle of the day, in populated areas exist.
[The Hitter.]
They ain't stopping that shit.
That shit was going on long before I was born, before you were born, and it'll keep going on until we die.
So, I don't even know why the fuck they try and stop it.
[Lewis.]
The dope, money, guns.
Power, blocks.
That shit not really mine.
Even when I'm dead, locked up, gone, It's going to be another one of those little kids.
out here pushing blow.
I thought about some of the shit I do.
It fucks me up at night.
I had flashbacks in my head.
Visuals pop up in my head.
Certain shit man, once you see it, you can never unsee it.
I just want to live a normal life.
But deep down inside, I know I'm not a normal person.
I got blood on my hands, you can never completely clear that shit out man.
you never completely clear that shit out man [sirens ringing.]
[sirens ringing.]
[man.]
That's the first how Fentanyl really flooded the streets.
It's the first time it became big.
[sirens ringing.]
[paramedic.]
How much heroin did you use? They wanna pass out, they wanna die.
They wanna to OD.
And they getting the fuck they looking for.
- Give me some space.
- breach, breach, breach! We are dealing with the worst of the worst.
There is true evil out there in the world, And sometimes, we deal with that in the human form.
[gunshots.]
[Lewis.]
The heroin is going to break you in half.
It's going to crumble you to your knees.
It's just gonna fuck you up.
I have remorse sometimes, I feel bad.
I think about some of the shit I have done to people, but, I ain't no monster.
I seen my sister Freddie Gray rise, That was like one of the best things, that could've ever happened for the dope game.
They making laws everyday that's in our favor, man.
It's no more plainclothes police officers in the state of Maryland anymore.
I love that law.
I'm like a Boss for real.
You're not going to really get to much higher than me, on the street level.
I got like, four or five blocks around here.
I got another block across town.
[Narrator.]
Lewis has been at the top of Baltimore's heroin business, for over 10 years.
My job is just basically to go around and collect money, [sirens ringing.]
making sure nobody run out of drugs, and that shit running like clockwork.
[Narrator.]
But today his blocks are running dry.
[Lewis.]
The last thing you want to do, is have your little niggas call you, "we need some more, we need some more", And I ain't got it.
And when a Junkie see that you ain't got it, they're not coming back around here for at least another week or so.
[Narrator.]
To hold on to his customers, Lewis needs to resupply, and fast.
I know it sounds greedy, but it's like you got to be a little bit.
You gotta get every dollar, you know what I mean.
[Lewis.]
So, I just got off the phone with my plug.
We're real cautious, he told me to meet him out of the county.
[Narrator.]
Lewis has to venture 35 miles north from his Turf in West Baltimore, To Harford County, to meet his plug.
[Lewis.]
Right now, we're getting out of the County Part.
One wrong move man and your ass is gone.
[Narrator.]
One of five counties that border the city, Harford, is a middle class suburb.
But the open space is comfortable condos, belie a growing heroin problem.
And an epidemic of fatal overdoses.
The community here, has had enough.
[gunshots.]
Police, search warrant, Police searcher! [Dunbar.]
It's just devastating, parents aren't supposed to be burying their children.
We as cops, we're not immune.
There's plenty of us, That have children or close loved ones, that are suffering from heroin addiction.
[Narrator.]
Now Harford County Law Enforcement is making a stand.
And dealers are in their sights.
That's our objective as Law Enforcement Officers, to get those guys off the street.
It is us against them.
[Narrator.]
Tactical training has become a a regular fixture, and it's paying off.
Drug seizures are up, and local judges are passing tougher sentences.
[Lewis.]
This time he had me meet him and shit It's heroin bro.
250g Straight rocks.
That's how you know you got good plug, you feel me? This shit is shipped straight from Afghanistan.
Let's get the fuck out of here man.
Ain't no room for error, None.
[Narrator.]
Dunbar has intel on a dealer who's moving heroin, back to the city.
[Lewis.]
I'll never really say that to nobody but, I hate this shit, I'm as scared as shit, man.
Okay, surveillance just advised, our target is at the local gas station.
He's at the pumps right now.
If we can get him boxed in, and get him in custody rather quickly before he can get to a firearm, They won't think twice about killing me, or one of my guys when we making a vehicle rip.
A lot of these guys have said, they don't want to go back to jail.
[indistinctive chatter on radio.]
Chris you just give me the green light.
[indistinctive chatter on radio.]
What did he say? Get it ready, get it ready.
[officer.]
He's right there, - [on radio.]
I'll block him in.
- Go, block him in.
[Narrator.]
The cops try to cut him off, But the suspect is too quick for them.
[Lee.]
Stop.
[sirens rinigng.]
[transmission noises.]
We don't know where [on radi.]
 Probably long gone.
It's frustrating to get that close but, That's tough.
at least nobody got hurt, that's the main thing.
[Narrator.]
But not all of the officers are unscathed.
[officer.]
He's cutting through here, I go to get out and he clips the door, whacks my shin, So I get back in the car, so there's nothing there.
Oh yeah, right here.
A scratch.
Well there go the law right there, you don't want to fuck with them.
[Narrator.]
Lucky for Lewis, the Hartford cops are busy with someone else.
[Lewis.]
That's a big weight off my chest and shit.
It's been at $11k but I'm looking to get, at least 23 bands back at least 23k, something around there.
We gonna hit this shit.
[Narrator.]
To turn the stash into cash, a long night's work lies ahead.
[Narrator.]
Lewis is meeting with his lieutenant, Dread.
[Lewis.]
Nigga Dreads.
Motherfuckers don't play with my lieutenant.
[Lewis.]
He one of my key players like I need him.
he's my eyes and ears.
It's that good shit too that brown shit.
As he picks up the Dope, he'll cut it up.
Take it to all the blocks for me, where I need him to take it to, get the money back from them, bring it to me, he do everything for me, as far as being out in the streets.
And I'm just like really behind the scenes with the shit.
Be careful.
On the outside looking in, it look like he's the boss.
You don't fucking know about me, you know that I exist.
So yeah, mission accomplished man.
Another successful day.
[Dread.]
I'm responsible for making sure it get delivered to certain people and I'm responsible for getting a certain amount of money back from If the money don't come back properly, then, we gonna have a problem [Narrator.]
As midnight approaches, Dredd moves that dope to a stash house to mix it with a special additive.
"Raw" is raw heroin, that straight dope with nothing on there.
Put the Fentanyl on there, you got you a monster.
These days, most blows if it ain't got the Fentanyl on there They don't even want it.
Everybody damn near cutting it with the fent.
Now the fiends got a whiff of that shit and that's all they want.
[Narrator.]
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, 50 times more powerful than heroin.
It's used to give the dope an edge.
People probably don't want to hear this you could kill a fiend off the dope and your strip is going to bang.
it's going to do numbers.
meaning it's going to be jumping.
The more fiends you kill, the more they chasing the dope.
You drop a fiend, the more money you gonna get.
[Narrator.]
Fentanyl is the new k iller ingredient that's responsible for America's current overdose epidemic.
I got these gloves on cause, you know the dope's strong.
It'll get in your pores.
[Narrator.]
Black runs one of Lewis's most profitable blocks.
It's his job to add the deadly Fentanyl cut.
This shit can get in your system, this shit's strong.
[Narrator.]
The addition of Fentanyl effectively hides the other cheap chemicals he uses to bulk out the raw heroin.
[Narrator.]
All added to stretch the raw heroin and maximize profits.
[Black.]
These are Double-O's.
most people got clear capsules, so we try to use blue and white so they know it our shit.
You get a lot of people trying to use your name.
but they can get colored pills too.
Motherfucker do that.
Motherfucker do that.
This is a morning drug.
People want their gate shot.
Before they go to work, five o'clock in the morning.
Shit like that.
We come out from five to seven.
At seven o'clock the shop is closed.
[Narrator.]
While Black repairs the days heroin, his crew assemble, watched over by Lewis's lieutenant and chief enforcer.
Dredd.
It's not like if you work and you fuck up something in the store, the store has insurance to cover that.
Out here in the game, it's not the same way.
If I catch you stealing, we'll break your fucking fingers.
Anything can happen, it depends on how we feeling.
At the end of the day you fucked that bread up.
and you as good as dead, I don't give a fuck who you are.
I ain't going to lie shit can get serious.
[Narrator.]
As dawn approaches addicts all over the city, are waking up to withdrawal symptoms.
Between the two of us we need 150, $200 a day just to stay functional.
We don't even get high off the stuff, it's just a survival.
[Narrator.]
Sean and Courtney are counting the minutes till the block opens for business.
People that don't use it, [laughs.]
they don't believe that they're using it, just to feel better.
They think they're using it just because they want to get high.
and feel good and stuff but they don't understand addiction.
Physical and mental and the physical part of it is awful.
Without it, we literally lay there on the floor and lay there on piles of sweat.
Freezing cold and hot sweat.
Tossing and turning all day long for hours.
Can't get up and go hustle any money because you are so ill.
Bones hurt, legs are weak, can't walk.
Diarrhoea, vomiting, hot and cold sweats, it's horrible.
[Sean.]
It's a horrible, horrible thing.
I had a normal life.
The American dream, the wife, the kids, the car.
A small business, money in the bank.
Everything.
I was at work, I had a slip and fall accident and broke my back.
I was in a wheelchair for almost 2 years.
After 4 years of pain medication, surgeries and everything else, The insurance company said, "We're done with you have a nice life".
And the pain medication stopped but the addiction didn't.
I couldn't afford to buy the pills off the street anymore so, you got to the new corner store and buy heroin.
My grandma moved and I became homeless.
I wasn't ready for it so I went on the streets to prostitution, to get money to support my habit.
Damn, here we are in a vacant house, with no running water, and barely any electricity.
Then the people that actually I was getting high with at first, They're dead.
- OD'd - Death has become so common.
I've seen a lot of people die right in front of me.
The drug dealers don't know the actual measurement The comparisons between Fentanyl and heroin.
They don't know how much Fentanyl equals this much heroin.
the drug dealers are just playing with it putting a little bit in and putting it out to test it and see how people like it.
You know, if you don't have a good tolerance built up You do something like that and it's got a bit too much, you're dead.
I really don't just know off hand like, this would go with this thing, this ain't going to kill him or, we don't know until we try.
It's just the experience, that's all it is.
Recently, I didn't know how much I was putting on, and I put too much I gave it to somebody, They was like "it's alright", so I knew I can put some more on there.
So I spread some more.
This is what's killing people out there.
But that's what they want.
They need the strong shit.
They want to OD.
And they get what the fuck they're looking for.
[Narrator.]
At the stroke of 5, Black hits the corner with the freshly cut scramble.
[Narrator.]
And the block opens for business.
We got the corner men right there, holding us down.
And you got corner men up there, holding us down, [Narrator.]
It's a well oiled machine, and every crew member has a specific role.
The corner men would just sit at the corner.
and just yells out "12".
That's what we call the police around here.
I might give them $50 a day, depends how the block goes.
If we have a good day, I might give them $100.
[Black.]
Then you got your hitters.
The hitters are the ones that are serving all the people.
They get $50 off of every 25 pills.
They do a hundred pills, that's like two or $300 easy.
I've been out here for real since I was a kid.
About nine or ten, something like that.
My living conditions weren't right as a kid.
I wanted more.
[Narrator.]
Hitters are crucial to the operation but run the greatest risks.
See, shit going down, you never know what can happen.
You hear shit like that everyday.
That shit is nothing new, I don't even flinch, when I hear that no more.
I see it everyday for real.
You gotta be focused on everything and everybody thats coming through.
All the calls because, I'm talking to y'all but as you see I'm looking everywhere.
Got to.
Niggas do shit, fiends do shit, police do shit.
People that ain't doing nothing do shit.
[The Hitter.]
You can't really even plan for the next day.
You gotta pray that you even make it to the next day.
The next second can alternated your whole life.
[Narrator.]
As his crew works, the boss, Lewis watches from a nearby trap house.
[Lewis.]
The young dudes coming up they see me, they see my crew, everybody I roll with we got money we got cars, We got the girls, we got all the respect in the neighborhood.
We don't have problems, like we run shit.
So it's like, I want to be that person.
I know you want to be me.
You know you can tell him anything.
A lot of times, what you will notice is there parents are on drugs.
So there parents aren't taking very good care of them.
They are gullible so, I'm gonna exploit that.
[Narrator.]
By now, the block is in full swing.
[Black.]
People coming from county and shit like that.
That's where the money comes from the out-of-towners.
They come to that bitch and buy packs, whole packs, twenty five packs.
Trying to spend $300 $200, they want grams and shit.
On a good day we might do, probably like four hundred pills.
That's like $4000.
That's all in like, hours.
[Narrator.]
With so much money to be made every boss is looking to expand their turf.
[Lewis.]
Ideally, you want to find a good easy block with nobody right there.
Or maybe like some little young dudes right there that ain't got much respect.
And you just tell him, get the fuck out of here scram.
Most times, they usually gonna buck first of all.
No, ain't nobody selling nothing here, this is my block.
Alright this is what's up, I'm gonna come right back with my big ass gun, I'm going to come back with like 3 niggas with me, and they got big ass choppers on then and we won't let him know, You'll get the fuck from right here don't come back right here.
If I see you back here, I'll bust your fucking head.
[gunshots.]
Taking over the show shit now you feel me.
Get you some junkies on the block, start feeding them, get them little bit of blow.
They'll let you come in the house, shit like that.
After that, you're rolling for real.
And then by word of mouth, if you got good heroin they gonna come back.
Before you know it give it two, three days.
You're doing $1000 a day.
You know, that's easy.
[Narrator.]
Back outside, Lewis goes to get some feedback from his customers.
[Lewis.]
It's overlooked a lot but, the junkie in the dope boy they go hand in hand.
It's peanut butter jelly, they need me.
Because, they need me to get them their shit.
You know what I'm saying, I need them because how good am I sitting here with heroin, if I don't got somebody that's going to fucking buy it.
Without them, there is no me.
See junkies man's, they'll kill for this shit.
That's just sad they would kill for this shit.
I've seen junkies with eight year olds, ten year olds, Prostituting their daughter's man saying, "hey do you want to have sex with my daughter give me two pills".
I need $20.
You know, it's just sick bro, they'd do anything.
Anything.
Some of this shit is just heartbreaking man inhumane type shit, you feel me? [Lewis.]
You see these beautiful girls man, maybe come from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, all the way down here just to get some good dope.
I used to see them over a period of time, their fucking demise bro, the dope, the heroin.
One thing about this shit, it's going to break you in half.
It's going to crumble you to your knees bro.
You're fucking skins going to turn oily.
You're going to get sores on your fucking arms, your legs are going to swell up, your eyes get fucking distorted, your hair starts falling out, teeth turn rotten.
It's just going to fuck you up man.
[phone ringing.]
Yeah.
[Narrator.]
Sean's got ten bucks.
Just enough to get his fix.
But Courtney needs to hustle up some money if she's going to get well.
[Sean.]
Be careful.
- [Courtney.]
Love you.
- Love you too.
[Narrator.]
But she only has one thing to sell.
[Sean.]
Human life is cheap around here, it's just means nothing.
Especially this younger generation, these young kids.
It's nothing to pull the trigger and kill somebody, They don't think twice about it.
The most shocking thing I saw was a guy asked to buy some drugs And a guy walked up behind him and shot him right in the face.
He got his brains splattered all over my face right in front of me.
It was a horrible, horrible thing.
The people to live here, they just step over it and keep going, like it's an everyday thing.
[Sean.]
Go head and go upstairs.
I'm gonna be stripping in front of y'all but it's only thing I can hit anymore.
[Sean.]
Now it's sore as shit going in the same spot, in my right hip, But you get it done really easy It's a nice big vain.
And just like that.
[sirens ringing.]
[Narrator.]
Just a few miles south of the block in Anne Arundel County, the emergency services are struggling to keep up with the overdoses.
[Garry.]
Since we border so close to Baltimore City, most of our addicts from the county are going over there and purchasing it, and they're coming back to the county and using it.
Which is causing a lot of overdoses.
[siren ringing.]
[Narrator.]
Officer Jones is responding to a call out for an OD, it's a race against time.
The longer the overdosing addict is left untreated, the more likely they'll die.
[baby crying.]
[paramedic.]
What's your middle name Tyler? What's your middle name? How much heroin did you use? Half cap? Whole cap? [Narrator.]
It looks like this addict will survive.
[Garry.]
We very often get calls like this.
There's a lot of overdoses, and a lot of heroin moving in the streets.
They're lucky, I mean very well could have been fatal.
[voices on radio.]
[Narrator.]
Within minutes reports come through of another incident.
Okay.
[sirens ringing.]
We're going to head over to Western District of Ana.
A fatal heroin overdose over in Severn.
This is a very wealthy neighborhood.
If you're looking to try and get heroin, it's just not where i'd be looking at, I can tell you that.
[Garry.]
You see dead bodies all time and it's just part of the job.
and you gotta be strong enough to handle that every day, day in and day out.
Do you think that the dealers care? No, or they wouldn't sell it.
I think they're out for their own well-being trying to make more money.
and everyone has morals everyone there is was correct and what's your not.
You know that what you're selling this person and what you're handing them can possibly kill them but you don't care because all you want is that $10 off them.
It's just not right.
[officers shouting.]
[Narrator.]
But the fight is back on.
Over in Harford County, police are doing a sweep to get intel on the heroin wholesaler responsible for a string of deaths.
[officer.]
We need someone to come check you out.
[Narrator.]
The same dealer, who ran their car just days ago.
We've got four young people we can put on this guy that are now dead because of a drug that he provided them.
[Narrator.]
Toxicology reports from his victims have revealed that terrifying development This dealer, it's pushing heroin laced with a new and even deadlier cut called Carfentanyl.
[Lee.]
We know that it's a hundred times more potent than heroin and up to 10000 times more potent than morphine.
So carfetynal's extremely deadly even in the smallest amounts.
Up to two or three grains is enough to kill a human being.
[Narrator.]
The sweep is giving them fresh intel on the dealers movements.
[Lee.]
If we know they're the source of supply, the drugs that are coming into our county, we're going to go there and get them.
[Narrator.]
To take him down, Hartford cops need to cross the county line.
[voices on radio.]
[Narrator.]
Dunbar and his team have trailed their suspect to a gas station.
Alright he's there at the gas pumps.
We're going to stage right up here right above the gas station, as soon as he comes out of the store.
We're going to make sure he doesn't get away this time we're going to try and seal off every exit.
And we're going to try to get him boxed in really tight.
[on radio.]
Go now.
Got a kid with him.
Alright he's got a small child and so we're going to be careful here.
The subjects in custody.
Sever here to your right.
We're searching the vehicle right now and to sure there's no evidence or weapons in there.
The main objective is to get that evidence so we can tie him directly to those four fatal overdose tests.
We need to be very swift in our tactics.
Which we were and got him in custody before he even knew what happened.
[Narrator.]
There's nothing in his car to tie him to the fatal overdoses.
Now we're going to execute the search warrant on his house, which is approximately half a mile that way.
[on radio.]
Hey dude, be aware that there are subjects here at the gas station that are familiar with this little girl.
- [officer.]
Compromised - [Lee.]
We're done.
[on radio.]
Okay.
[Narrator.]
Word of the arrest is already spreading.
And the cops need to storm the suspect's house before anyone can destroy any evidence.
[voices on radio.]
[officer.]
Give me some space.
[officer.]
Police with a search warrant! Breach, breach, breach! Police with a search warrant! Slow and steady.
[officer.]
Move forward.
How many got down? Search warrant! You're downstairs.
- Clear in here.
- It's clear.
[Narrator.]
They need to find something linking the dealer to one of the victims.
[officer.]
Knocking notes.
- I got crack.
- Is that crack? There's more down here too I just got to get it all.
[Narrator.]
It's not drugs they're after, It's information.
[officer.]
We got it.
[Narrator.]
But it doesn't take long to find a list of the dealers customers.
[Lee.]
What did you guys get? We got a piece of paper with our victims phone number on it.
That's great.
We're getting ready to interview him now.
See what he says about that.
That's good man.
It's pretty convincing evidence.
[Narrator.]
It's time to try to flip the dealer To see if they can trace the source of the killer Carfentanyl.
[officer.]
You got a pretty bad criminal history.
That'll put you in jail for a long time but that's the least of your concerns.
Your biggest concern, is that your body on you.
Okay, you have a good body on you.
Listen, there's three other bodies on you in Baltimore county.
So you'll probably be charged another three times.
We are going to prosecute you federally.
- That carries a 20 year mandatory sentence.
- [dealer.]
Sir I don"t need That's twenty years in prison.
I'm going to put four bodies on you.
You're gonna be sentenced to 80 years in Federal Prison.
I don't want to go to jail.
You just got to help us man.
People are fucking dying.
[dealer.]
I didn't try and kill anybody officer.
My aunt OD'd off heroin.
My father, he OD'd off heroin.
So, I know I'm not like one of them people who don't have a heart.
I have a heart, I have a real big heart.
[officer.]
Where is the Carfentanyl coming from my friend.
Sit down, sit down, you have to sit.
- [officer.]
Where did it come from? - [dealer.]
That's the thing about it.
I'm giving you this one chance.
Okay you're looking to spend the rest of your life in jail.
- Where is it coming from? - We're trying to stop people from dying.
And there are four people dead.
- [officer.]
My stuff.
- From stuff that you put on the street.
- Come on, let's go.
- I ain't selling drugs to anybody.
I don't have no Carfentanyl.
I don't have no heroin.
I ain't killed nobody.
[Narrator.]
Even with a life sentence hanging over him the dealer refuses to give up his supplier.
[Lee.]
So we'll transport him down to central booking And hopefully, Baltimore city courts will hold him long enough until we can get him indicted on the fatal overdose.
[Lee.]
The Baltimore city court system, quite frankly, it's not good.
Most of their jails and intake facilities down here are already maxed out.
You're out here locking these guys up, getting them off the streets.
But the courts are turning around and letting them back out again.
They need to be taken off the streets for good I'm talking life sentences.
[Narrator.]
With the penal system failing, and new synthetic opioid is offering bigger profits, Baltimore's heroin business is booming like never before.
[Sean.]
I couldn't imagine being a child and growing up in this city.
There's heroin on literally every corner and every neighborhood.
They're either going to grow up to be a drug addict or drug dealer.
That's all they're exposed to from time they can comprehend anything.
[Lewis.]
I think it's not just us, the dope boys, that have fucked the neighborhood up man.
I feel like a police failed us.
The school system failed us.
The city has failed us.
[Lewis.]
When we leave outside of Baltimore go to a different place, you see that, other place aren't fucked up like this.
But that's all we know, all we know is this shit.
Here, It's dirty and everybody's mad.
Look at this shit, would you be mad? I'd be mad too.
[gunshots.]
[Lee.]
It is a war on drugs.
Is there a clear winner right now? No, there's not.
[officer shouting.]
A lot of people say, well it's a war you'll never win.
But we got to keep fighting it, we can't this let what goes on every day out on the streets.
We can't let open air drug markets exist.
We can't let shootings during the middle of the day, in populated areas exist.
[The Hitter.]
They ain't stopping that shit.
That shit was going on long before I was born, before you were born, and it'll keep going on until we die.
So, I don't even know why the fuck they try and stop it.
[Lewis.]
The dope, money, guns.
Power, blocks.
That shit not really mine.
Even when I'm dead, locked up, gone, It's going to be another one of those little kids.
out here pushing blow.
I thought about some of the shit I do.
It fucks me up at night.
I had flashbacks in my head.
Visuals pop up in my head.
Certain shit man, once you see it, you can never unsee it.
I just want to live a normal life.
But deep down inside, I know I'm not a normal person.
I got blood on my hands, you can never completely clear that shit out man.
you never completely clear that shit out man [sirens ringing.]