Fentanyl Found In Air Vents Of Kids’ Detention Center, Hospitalizing 7

Multiple people were hospitalized Sunday after fentanyl was found in the ventilation system of an Ohio juvenile detention center, according to authorities.

Four juveniles and three staff members at the Northwest Ohio Juvenile Detention Training and Rehabilitation Center in Stryker, Ohio, were taken to the hospital Sunday after multiple juveniles reportedly collapsed, according to Williams County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeff Lehman, WTOL reported.

Authorities responded to the detention center at around 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, WTOL reported, after the sheriff’s department received a call notifying them that several inmates had collapsed. The responders conducted a search of the facility and found evidence of fentanyl in the facility’s air system.

The juveniles are reportedly in stable condition and are expected to be okay, WTVG reported. It’s unclear how the fentanyl came to be in the facility’s ventilation system; the Williams County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Other unaffected juveniles housed at the facility have been moved to an adult detention center, separated from adult detainees while investigations are ongoing and other arrangements are made, WTOL reported.

Fentanyl in an opioid that “is estimated to be 80 times as potent as morphine and hundreds of times more potent than heroin,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.