FARGO-A Moorhead man is in jail after being accused of supplying heroin that nearly killed two people in overdoses in the metro last month.
The region has been hit with a rash of apparent opiate overdoses, at least seven of them fatal, in recent months.
Fargo police responded to an overdose on April 2 in which the victim had stopped breathing and was saved by paramedics. A second overdose in West Fargo on April 19 also nearly killed the victim, who was told by an emergency medical technician that "he/she was deceased" before being revived.
Information on these two recent overdoses are part of a court filing in the federal case against Greg Alan Krutsinger, 38, who is accused of selling heroin from his south Moorhead apartment.
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The trail doesn't end at Krutsinger, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency, which investigated the case. Krutsinger may have received the drugs from a known supplier named Dalton White, also known by his nickname "Block," court documents say.
The DEA and local law enforcement believe that heroin and fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opiate, supplied by White are behind more than five overdoses, at least one of which was fatal, the documents say.
Krutsinger was charged, Thursday, April 28, in federal court in Fargo with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and distributing a controlled substance, namely heroin.
In an affidavit attached to the charge, DEA Special Agent Charles Connelly describes how law enforcement caught up with Krutsinger:
On April 2, police responded to an overdose at 510 Countryside Trailer Court in Fargo. The victim's roommate used an emergency treatment called Narcan on the victim, who was taken to Essentia Hospital and survived.
The victim admitted to buying heroin that day from someone named "Greg." Text messages between the victim and "Greg" showed that "Greg" used a number associated with Krutsinger.
On April 9, Krutsinger and his passenger were pulled over in Moorhead for speeding. Krutsinger appeared to be acting nervous and his pupils were constricted. He was cited and his passenger, Stephanie Belardi, was arrested with 3.2 grams of heroin.
On April 19, an overdose was reported in West Fargo at 304 12th St. E. The victim, who survived, admitted in an interview with authorities to buying 0.1 gram of apparent heroin from Kelsey Stoddard at the same residence.
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Stoddard agreed to an interview with authorities at the Clay County Jail. She said she bought the heroin, describing it as a yellow powder, from Krutsinger earlier the day on April 19. She said she did not know the name of Krutsinger's source, but believed the source left town on April 19 after a raid on an apartment in the area of the intersection of Interstate 29 and Interstate 94.
A week earlier, according to Stoddard, she had received similar yellow powder heroin from Krutsinger. On that day, Stoddard went with Krutsinger to an apartment at the intersection of the two interstates; Krutsinger went inside and came out with heroin. He gave Stoddard 0.2 gram. She used it and "did not have any problems."
Krutsinger pleaded guilty in 2004 to lying to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice in a drug trafficking case in Fargo.
