CHEATHAM COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) – Fentanyl is becoming an epidemic in Cheatham County.

According to narcotics officers, 26 people died from fentanyl related overdoses last year alone.

It is because of this that the sheriff’s department is willing to spend years to catch those who sold the lethal drugs that ended people’s lives.

According to the head of the Cheatham County Narcotics Unit, Lt. Shannon Heflin, a man in his mid 20s died in October 2020.

Last week, deputies arrested Curtis Daye, 43, and charged him with that crime. The Dickson man is now in the Cheatham County Jail on a $100,000 bond and is charged with second-degree murder.

“To have 26 overdose deaths in one year, those numbers are just astronomical. It’s insane…should not be happening,” Heflin said.

According to drug agents, in October 2020, a man in his mid 20s snorted heroin laced with fentanyl and died.

“The victim passed out while driving. His foot was on the brake. EMS resumed CPR to the hospital, later on pronounced brain dead,” Heflin said.

Cheatham County narcotics agents spent the next two and a half years pulling phone records,
obtaining toxicology reports, and interviewing witnesses. Finally, 29 months after the man died of a heroin overdose in Joelton, detectives arrested Daye on March 10 and charged him with second-degree murder in connection for that man’s death.

“We take it very seriously. If you sell dope and kill someone in Cheatham County, we are going to come after you and charge you with second-degree murder. The message to the dealers is this is the consequences; you are out here selling poison. It’s killing people, you know it could kill people or potentially could kill somebody, and the consequences are you could be charged with second-degree murder for causing that death,” Heflin said.

News 2 has learned that the FBI has been instrumental in this case. Their role is not totally clear, but News 2 was told the investigation is ongoing.