Tarrant County has recorded 163 fentanyl-related overdose deaths this year, according to figures released by District Attorney Phil Sorrells’ office and reported by Irving Weekly.
The office also reported 16 deaths involving kratom and one involving cychlorphine, an emerging synthetic opioid.
The warning raises an accountability question for North Texas: Are drug deaths declining, and how many fatal fentanyl cases are resulting in criminal prosecutions? The public records reviewed do not establish a comparable 2024, 2025 and 2026 year-to-date trend.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, federal officials had identified cychlorphine in the illegal drug supply in Texas earlier this year.
Prison sentences show enforcement in action
The DA’s annual report documents prosecutions under the Texas fentanyl murder law that took effect September 1, 2023.
Kaeden Farish pleaded guilty in 2024 after selling fentanyl-laced pills that killed a 17-year-old. He received a 19-year prison sentence.
In June 2025, a jury convicted Jacob Lindsay of murder in the death of Brandon Harrison, 26, who died after ingesting fentanyl and methamphetamine in September 2023. Lindsay received a life sentence.
The Second Court of Appeals affirmed Lindsay’s conviction, with a clerical correction to the judgment, on August 27, 2026.
Those cases establish specific enforcement results. Assessing the county’s response over time requires annual totals for fentanyl distribution cases, murder filings and convictions.
Different substances require different evidence
Cychlorphine, also called N-propionitrile chlorphine, is a synthetic opioid. A federal order temporarily placed it in Schedule I effective August 27, 2026. DEA has warned that emerging opioids can appear in counterfeit pills or mixtures with fentanyl without the user’s knowledge.
Kratom-related products require a separate distinction. The FDA identifies natural kratom leaf containing trace levels of 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, separately from concentrated 7-OH products and synthetic derivatives that do not naturally occur in the plant.
The DA’s reported count of 16 kratom-involved deaths does not establish which products were consumed or whether other drugs contributed. It should not be read as 16 deaths caused solely by ordinary kratom leaf.
DEA advises calling 911 immediately for a suspected overdose. Naloxone can reverse opioid effects, but overdoses involving potent synthetic opioids such as cychlorphine may require multiple doses, according to the agency.
