ELKTON, Md. — Welcome to Elkton, Maryland---The county seat of Cecil County, a town of 16,000 and a convenient drug market for suppliers in nearby Wilmington, Delaware and Philadelphia.
“You see the people, the little zombies, nose to toes, walking. It’s crazy,” said Belinda Ritter, a longtime resident, “For being a little town, it’s dangerous.”
WATCH: Investigation leads to teen's arrest in Elkton
Investigators with the Maryland State Police Strategic Operations Group knew fentanyl was showing up throughout Cecil County, but they had no idea a primary source would emerge in the form of a 17-year-old boy living in Elkton.
“This teenager, with the amount of fentanyl he had on him, in his vehicle, in the home where he was living, it was clear to our investigators that this was sales and distribution of this illegal drug,” said Elena Russo of the Maryland State Police.
On the day of the take down, they found 16 bundles of fentanyl on the unidentified teen and 40 more stashed inside the house.
Each of those doses could have potentially been deadly, yet the teen, for now, only faces juvenile charges and there’s more.
“The 17-year-old was released to his mother with the charges as a juvenile,” said Russo.
Felony charges, which could stick on his record and prosecutors may yet decide to try him as an adult, but for now, it falls short of cracking down on an alleged source of a drug, which has played a role in many of the county’s 290 reported overdoses this year, 30 of which proved fatal.
Just ask Belinda Ritter.
In February of 2023, she lost her husband of 30 years, Neal Ferguson, to the same drug.
“My husband had a drug-induced heart attack, because of the fentanyl. He had it in his system. He died from fentanyl,” said Ritter, “I want to move away from here. I want to move from Cecil County.”
