10 ounces of suspected fentanyl found in home with critically ill baby

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This article was published 24/10/2016 (2739 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Police say up to 10 ounces of suspected fentanyl in a bag was found in the home where a nine-month-old baby was found in critical condition last week.

They also found a cutting agent and a contaminated bowl and spoon.

The mother and father of the baby have been criminally charged after he was rushed to hospital in critical condition last week with suspected fentanyl contact.

Winnipeg police Const. Jason Michalyshen said on Tuesday that the 33-year-old dad and 32-year-old mom have been charged with failing to provide the necessities of life, causing bodily harm by criminal negligence, and drug trafficking.

Michalyshen said it’s not known how the child was exposed to fentanyl. He said the drug could have been on a bottle the child touched, or clothing, or somewhere else.

Michalyshen would only say the baby boy “is safe and in care. I won’t go any further.”

Michalyshen wouldn’t say if the child is still in hospital.

The parents were arrested on Monday and are still in custody.

Police and emergency workers rushed to a residence on Aikins Street on Oct.18, after a 911 call that a baby was in medical distress.

Michalyshen said the parents “weren’t forthcoming” on any drugs in the house when they arrived but soon officers found “loose suspected fentanyl powder”. After a search, another 10 ounces of suspected fentanyl powder was found bagged.

Michalyshen said testing is still being done to confirm the powder is fentanyl but he said police suspect it was because the baby “immediately began to recover” when the fentanyl antidote was given to the baby at a hospital.

Michalyshen said police believe the child’s exposure to the suspected fentanyl was “inadvertent”.

Police said fentanyl powder is worth a street value of between $2,000 to $2,200 per ounce.

‘They seemed like good parents’

Roxanna Spence, who lives in the North End Aikins Street suite above where the baby was discovered, said the child “was cute.

“A little boy… He would be with his mother outside on the porch. They seemed like good parents.

“I didn’t think a mother could do this.”

Spence said that the day after the baby was rushed off, police got her and her four grandchildren to leave the house in case fentanyl was also present in her suite.

“We have baseboard heaters so it wasn’t in our suite,” she said.

“I was scared and p—– off at the same time.”

Spence said the couple wouldn’t answer their door before their arrest on Monday when she went to find out what happened.

She said she didn’t know drug trafficking was going on below her.

“I like this place — I’m not going to move,” she said.

“I will help the landlord find a better tenant.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca