Seminole County prosecutors take hard line on drug dealers whose customers die of overdose

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — As heroin overdose deaths have increased at an alarming rate in Seminole County over the past 18 months, prosecutors have started going after dealers who sold the deadly drugs.

Tamas Harris Jr., 18, is the third alleged drug dealer to be charged with murder in the past nine months after a customer died of an overdose, officials said.

He is accused of selling an Altamonte Springs man heroin laced with the powerful opiate fentanyl.

The man died soon after injecting the cocktail, deputies said.

The two other murder charges filed in connection with overdose deaths in Seminole County were in connection with the death of an Oviedo woman, investigators said.

“It’s a problem,” assistant state attorney Dan Faggard said. “It’s a big problem.”

The hope is by getting the dealers off the street, and making sure others know there are stiff penalties for those who sell to individuals who die of an overdose, that the deadly trend will improve, Faggard said.

“When we have drugs that are killing people, and we have people who ware turning around and selling these drugs again and again and again, right after they bond out of jail, something different has to happen,” he said.

If found guilty of first-degree murder, dealers face a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Cox Media Group