An investigation into an Omaha drug ring that police suspected of causing at least six overdose deaths "now feels wasted" after President Joe Biden commuted the 15-year prison sentence of one of the operation’s ringleaders, according to the lead investigator on the case.
Among the 1,500 commutations Biden issued last week was the case of Wendy Hechtman, a former journalist who pleaded guilty alongside her husband in 2018 of producing and selling carfentanil, a deadly drug that the federal government calls the "most potent fentanyl analog detected in the United States." As part of the plea agreement, the Hechtmans acknowledged their drugs "did result in overdoses."
Chris Perna, a former Omaha police detective who took down the Hechtmans, said investigators suspected that the Hechtman drug ring was linked to at least six overdose deaths in Omaha and nearby Council Bluffs, Iowa. He told the Washington Free Beacon that his department "put their lives at risk during the investigation," but Biden’s commutation makes all that work "now feel wasted."
"Releasing Wendy Hechtman shows me that the United States government is not concerned with the hundreds of thousands of citizens dying from fentanyl overdoses," Perna said. "I understand that some commutations are deserved, but commuting the sentence of an individual that is directly responsible for numerous overdose deaths is just irresponsible."
Biden’s commutations included other high-profile criminals. A former Pennsylvania judge, Michael Conahan, convicted of taking kickbacks from a for-profit prison executive in exchange for sending juveniles to those facilities, saw his 17.5-year sentence commuted.
The mother of one of Conahan’s victims called Biden’s commutation an "injustice." Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D.) said Biden was "absolutely wrong" to commute the sentence.
Other recipients included several financiers convicted of operating Ponzi schemes, a corrupt health care executive, and a former Illinois comptroller who embezzled more than $53 million from her city to breed racehorses.
The investigation into Hechtman’s drug ring took two years to complete and involved the entire Omaha police narcotics division and assistance from the Drug Enforcement Agency, according to Perna.
Perna, who retired from the Omaha Police Department last year, said his investigation started when an informant told police that the Hechtmans were purchasing carfentanil off the dark web for personal use. They would then mix the drug with Truvia, an artificial sweetener, to create a powdered version of the drug.
"The informant and Officers of the Omaha Police Department put their lives at risk during this entire investigation, which now feels wasted," Perna said.
According to Perna, detectives linked at least six deaths to the Hechtman operation, including a man who died after trying to replicate the Hechtmans’s carfentanil concoction. Prosecutors did not pursue charges related to the deaths because they would have been too difficult to prove in court, Perna said.
Hechtman told the Free Beacon that she is "sorry" Perna "feels that way" and blamed a drug addiction for her prior crimes. Hechtman added that she is now "the kind of person good people want as a neighbor."
"I know if he spent a few minutes talking to me now, he would realize this isn’t anything for anyone to be frustrated about," she said. "I think he’d actually be happy because that work to stop me was not in vain."
The White House and the Omaha Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.
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