A Garland man was arrested on Tuesday after three teenage girls overdosed on fentanyl he allegedly gave them.
Erik Santos has been charged with three counts of delivery of a controlled substance causing serious bodily injury, which is a first-degree felony, NBC 5 DFW reported. The girls are recovering at a local hospital. Santos is currently being held at Dallas County Jail.
One girl was found at an AMC movie theater, and the other two were discovered at a nearby TGI Fridays, according to a press release posted to social media by the Garland Police Department.
First responders with the Garland Fire Department arrived at the scene and were able to revive the girls using Narcan, a medicine that rapidly reverses the potentially-deadly effects of an opioid overdose.
The Garland Police Department warned the public of the dangers of fentanyl abuse and offered help to those who need it.
“If you need advice or answers, give our Behavioral Health Unit a call at 972-205-4604, no questions asked. We will direct you to the best resources available for fentanyl addiction,” the department wrote.
Over 150 people die every day due to fentanyl, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The synthetic opioid is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.
Fentanyl is involved in more deaths of Americans under 50 than any other cause of death, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Only two milligrams of the drug can be lethal.
More than 3,400 drug-related criminal offenses were committed in Dallas in the first four months of the year, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The Dallas Police Department has been suffering from a significant staffing shortage in recent years. According to a City analysis, the department is short roughly 900 officers, falling under the 4,000 officers recommended.
The shortage has been felt in Downtown Dallas. The neighborhood sees considerably more crime than Fort Worth’s downtown area, which reportedly has a dedicated police unit working alongside private security guards.