WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — West Palm Beach’s special police force called GHOST, which has been operating since 2020, recently apprehended a fentanyl dealer.

Police say a man, thinking he was buying cocaine, was actually given fentanyl, resulting in an overdose and subsequent death.

Officers went through the man’s phone and saw text messages between him and his dealer.

Officers from GHOST (the habitual gang crime suppression team) sent the dealer, who they said was Kevin Gonzalez, their own text messages.

They asked Gonzalez to supply them with another gram of “the same stuff” and “$500 of the pink dope,” which police said Gonzalez agreed to sell.

Court records show that when Gonzalez showed up for the deal, GHOST officers hailed him, causing Gonzalez to flee.

As he ran, investigators say Gonzalez dropped a brown paper bag that they later recovered once Gonzalez was arrested.

Inside the paper bag, officers found two bags of fentanyl and a bag of the “pink stuff,” methamphetamine.

WPTV

“Fentanyl is very dangerous. I don’t know why anyone would sell it,” said Jackie Wood, a longtime West Palm Beach resident. “It’s ridiculous.”

Wood couldn’t believe the statistics from the Palm Beach County medical examiner’s office showing the number of accidental overdoses in his area.

Last year, nearly 500 people died from accidental overdoses, and so far, at least 200 people have died from opioid use.

“I can’t even picture it in my mind — too many people,” Wood said.

Gonzalez is still in the Palm Beach County Jail and is being held without bond.

He was charged with first degree murder in the drug distribution case.