#

Manchester is trying to stop the tide of used drug syringes washing over the city with a new ordinance aimed at reigning in the groups handing them out.

Mayor Jay Ruais said Manchester is now the first municipality in the state to assert oversight of Syringe Service Programs (SSPs), thanks to an ordinance passed this week.

“On a fundamental, basic level, we can’t allow the unregulated flow of needles into our city,” Ruais told NHJournal. 

Used syringes littering city streets and parks has become an increasing problem since 2017, when the state legislature passed a bill allowing SSPs to operate with little to no oversight. In the last seven years as Manchester’s opioid epidemic and homeless crisis raged, the city didn’t even know how many groups were handing out syringes in the city.

“Before this ordinance, there wasn’t any insight into how many of these programs were operating. There was no transparency or accountability,” Ruais said.

That lack of accountability and transparency contributed to making the city’s drug problem worse, Ruias said. It also put police, firefighters, and EMTs who encountered used needles during their jobs in danger. The situation is also a danger for every resident who might encounter the used syringes just about anywhere.

The tale of Manchester slipping into a crises of crime, addiction and homelessness on former Mayor Joyce Craig’s six-year watch has become part of the campaign for governor. While she’s denied the claim that she left Manchester in a mess, the fact is little was done to get control of the SSPs during her tenure.

Though the city passed an ordinance three years ago banning needle handouts from city parks, nothing else was done to manage the problem. In the meantime, syringes kept getting passed out by the SSPs, and the used syringes kept ending up in parks, city streets, outside schools, and all over.

“We hear concerns from families when they see them in parks or in the streets,” Ruais said. “It’s been a problem that’s been brought up to us on a far too frequent basis.”

The new ordinance requires all SSPs to register with the city, to provide data on their programs —  such as how many needles are passed out — and to take back at least some used syringes in an effort to keep them off the streets. The programs must also hand out information on disease prevention and drug treatment to the people seeking the syringes. The ordinances also codify location restrictions such as city parks, school zones, and state-licensed daycares. 

The original ordinance would have required the SSPs to engage in a one-for-one exchange, meaning they had to collect one used syringe for every new one handed out. But after talking to some of the groups handing out the syringes, Ruais backed a change that does not tie the programs to the one-for-one rate.

“We mandate that an exchange takes place, but not a one-for-one,” Ruais said.

The aim of these programs is to help stop the spread of infectious diseases. Ruais insisted the city is not trying to get in the way of that important effort. A strict one for one exchange may have hindered people from getting help. Ruais also wanted to give Manchester the flexibility to make changes as the city gets more data from the programs about the handouts.

“It’s a good first step,” he said. “Now we’re going to get the data back and see what it tells us.”

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office says it’s arrested six members of a drug ring based in Lawrence, Mass. who used the postal service to get cocaine into the Granite State.

Delvin Castillo Portorreal, 42, Jose Ynoa Ynfante, 36, Maribi Garcia, 28, Elio Omar Cabrera Lopez, 27, Ernesto Valerio, 24, and Angel Miguel Marte Ruiz, 21, were all indicted this week by a Hillsborough County grand jury on charges of conspiracy to possess a controlled drug with intent to distribute.

According to New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella, the six suspected operators were first noticed by investigators with the United States Postal Inspection Service. 

“The collaborative efforts of New Hampshire law enforcement and the United States Postal Inspection Service emphasize our shared commitment to combating drug trafficking in our communities and dismantling the networks that threaten public safety,” Formella said.

Over the last two years, Ynfante, Garcia, Lopez, Valerio, and Ruiz regularly picked up packages sent from Puerto Rico at a post office in Nashua. According to Formella, those packages contained multiple kilos of cocaine.

The drugs were reportedly taken to a Lawrence connection by Portorreal. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, Lawrence is the drug trafficking hub for New Hampshire, responsible for the majority of fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine coming into the Granite State.

The alleged postal cocaine gang members weren’t the only traffickers caught this week. Joel Soto Sanchez and Yunior Elliandri Perez Herrera were both indicted for their roles in allegedly trafficking large quantities of fentanyl and some methamphetamine in Concord and Tilton.

New Hampshire’s U.S. Attorney Jane Young and Paul Spera, the assistant special agent in charge for the DEA, sat down with NHJournal earlier this year to discuss the flow of drugs into New Hampshire. According to Young and Spera, the Lawrence gangs get their drugs from Mexican cartels.

“Those organizations [Lawrence gangs] have a connection with Mexican cartels, and so they’re able to get bulk quantities, distribution level quantities, kilogram quantities of the drugs,” Spera said. “They’re the organizations. They’re the drug distribution networks that have direct connections to the Mexican cartels.”

Republican Kelly Ayotte took heat early in her run for governor when she called out Massachusetts cities Lawrence and Lowell for their roles in moving deadly drugs into New Hampshire.

“It’s killing our citizens,” Ayotte said.

Lawrence City Council President Marc Laplante invited Ayotte to watch the city’s drug enforcement team work, while Lowell City Manager Tom Golden demanded an apology.

Drugs and crime have emerged as a significant issue in the race for governor, with Ayotte attacking former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig for the city’s poor record on opioid overdoses and crime in the streets. Craig’s Democratic compatriots may not be helping.

Last week, Democrats on a New Hampshire House Study Committee blocked Republicans from recommending new legislation that would create mandatory minimum sentences for fentanyl dealers.