DID FENTANYL-LACED PAIN KILLERS RESULT IN 26-YEAR-OLD FEMALE INMATE'S DEATH WHILE WAITING FOR REHAB SPOT?

 Special to El Rrun-Rrun

When she died at only 26, Jacqueline Barocio was being held in custody at the Carrizalez-Rucker Cameron County Detention Center in Olmito waiting to clear her pending prosecution and getting in line to enter a state drug treatment and rehabilitation center.

Now, in a case of tragic irony, it is suspected that she died of a possible overdose with a pain-killing drug that may have been tainted with fentayl. If so, the Texas Rangers are investigating how it was that an inmate held in custody at the detention center could have acquired it behind bars.

As the story emerges from various sources, a picture emerges of a troubled young woman who had been hooked on drugs by a former boyfriend and who was being held on a aggravated assault against him and a second on possession of drugs. That man had given her pro bono attorney a statement saying that the incident had been overblown and said he would not press charges in the matter. Once that had been dismissed by a court, she would have been eligible to get in line for a spot in a state treatment program. 

Barocio could have qualified for the The Substance Abuse Felony Punishment Facility (SAFPF) or the  In-Prison Therapeutic Community (IPTC) that provide services to qualified inmates identified as needing substance use treatment. Both are six-month in-prison treatment programs followed by up to three months of residential aftercare in a transitional treatment center (TTC), six to nine months of outpatient aftercare and up to 12 months of support groups and follow-up supervision.

In fact, her family had told the lawyer that had previously represented her brother in federal court and who volunteered to represent her pro bono that they had not posted bond of her so she could get clean inside and think over the consequences of her substance abuse.

Things get murky as they trace the sequence of events that led to the young woman's death. A cell mate in one of the adjoining isolated cell away from the general population said that Barocio had complained of a toothache and had requested medication for the pain as late as Friday evening. She was found unresponsive Saturday morning and everything points to her ingesting some substance between Friday night and Saturday morning.

The Texas Rangers investigating the inmate's death have been close-lipped with her family and her legal representatives. But since she was a ward of the state an under their custody and control, the family is demanding that they tell them how it was that their daughter came across potentially tainted tooth medication which could have contained the lethal drug, or whether fentanyl itself had been made available by unidentified jail staff or personnel.

For months now, authorities have warned that many prescription drugs sold in Mexico and are much cheaper than their American counterparts, have been adulterated with fentanyl, heroin, morphine or  methamphetamines. https://www.dea.gov/alert/dea-laboratory-testing-reveals-6-out-10-fentanyl-laced-fake-prescription-pills-now-contain

The DEA Laboratory has found that, of the fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills analyzed in 2022, six out of ten now contain a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl. This is an increase from DEA’s previous announcements in 2021 that four out of ten fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills were found to contain a potentially lethal dose.

“More than half of the fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills being trafficked in communities across the country now contain a potentially deadly dose of fentanyl. This marks a dramatic increase – from four out of ten to six out of ten – in the number of pills that can kill,” said Administrator Anne Milgram. “These pills are being mass-produced by the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Cartel in Mexico.

If the 26-year-old female inmate died as a result of taking pain killers given to her by jail staff for her toothache, does this mean that the cheap generic drugs (that might have been manufactured in Mexico) being dispensed at Carrizales may be tainted with the deadly drug? Was it a matter of economics that made these medications attractive to give to inmates because they were cheaper than American-made prescriptions? Or is there a traffic in fentanyl inside Carrizales?

Her family, trying to deal with the tragedy of their daughter dying in custody are asking for answers and so far, neither the Rangers or the sheriff's department have provided them with any information. 

"They say they can't tell them anything because it's an ongoing investigation," said a source close to the family. "But if the woman in th cell near her said she was alright Friday night and then found unresponsive Saturday morning, something happened in-between that caused her death. But she was a ward of the state and under the custody of the Sheriff (Eric Garza). It's his responsibility. Somebody has to know why this happened to her."