A 40-year-old Tavernier man was arrested and charged in connection with the victim of a fatal overdose of pills containing fentanyl.
Detectives with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigations Division on Friday reported they arrested Michael Patrick Stevens for his alleged role in the July 24, 2024, death of 41-year-old Adam Halenza of Key Largo.
Detectives said in a statement that they identified Stevens "as the source of pills consumed by Halenza that were found to contain fentanyl."
The Sheriff's Office says the arrest is part of a series of similar drug-related homicide arrests made in recent years with the Monroe County State Attorney’s Office and law enforcement partners.
“I want to thank the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office for their hard work on this case,” said Sheriff Rick Ramsay. “We are committed to holding those who sell these deadly drugs in our community accountable.”
About 107,500 people died of overdoses in the U.S. last year, including both American citizens and non-citizens who were in the country at the time they died, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. That’s down 3% from 2022, when there were an estimated 111,000 such deaths, according to the CDC.
The drug overdose epidemic, which has killed more than 1 million people since 1999, has had many ripple effects. For example, a study published earlier this year in JAMA Psychiatry estimated that more than 321,000 U.S. children lost a parent to a fatal drug overdose from 2011 to 2021.