EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. — If saving lives wasn't incentive enough, Pikes Peak Area Crime Stoppers in Teller and El Paso counties is offering something else to combat the fentanyl epidemic.
The group announced a reward of up to $1,000 for tips that lead to an arrest of a person distributing fentanyl in any quantity. Crime Stoppers shares information on a completely anonymous basis with law enforcement in the region.
Fentanyl is killing Coloradans. It accounted for nearly half of overdose deaths last year.
"Our hope is that this reward will incentivize people to come forward with information to allow us to defeat this scourge on our society," Crime Stoppers Volunteer Chairman Don Addy said.
The organization posted the reward in February, and Addy said calls are already coming in.
"Police, sheriff, and law enforcement – they don’t have information like this," he said. "They rely on the public to help them."
In Denver County, prosecutors say anonymous tips in January helped police arrest a man accused of dealing drugs out of a home. Investigators said they found thousands of suspected fentanyl pills there, along with other drugs and firearms.
The FBI said they found similar pills in a Colorado Springs woman's car in March. She was arrested on a federal drug charge after a high school student overdosed and died in class.
According to court documents, police say the woman sold fentanyl in pill form to two girls in December. Records claim the girls shared it with a friend, who took some of the fentanyl in a bathroom at Mitchell High School in Colorado Springs. The friend died in class as a result of using the fentanyl, according to court documents.
"We need to all work together to stop this from happening. Certainly reduce it, if not stop it as soon as we can," Addy said.
The reward is larger than other rewards Crime Stoppers has posted for drug-related cases. Typically, they are a few hundred dollars. They hope the larger reward encourages more people to call in and get more drugs off the street.
Crime Stoppers urges anyone with information about people distributing fentanyl to call 719-634-STOP (7867) or visit crimestop.net.
Since November, Metro Denver Crime Stoppers said they’ve received seven tips that each led to at least one arrest where one of the charges was possession of a controlled substance.
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