Fentanyl is a deadly drug that is destroying lives across America and has also killed innocent babies.
More than a million people have died from drug overdoses since 1999, and the crisis continues to worsen with a record 109,680 deaths in 2022, compared to 52,902 in 2016.
Last year, a whopping 72,815 people were killed by fentanyl — meaning the drug is killing about 2,000 Americans every week.
The cheap drug that is 50 times more powerful than heroin has ravaged many states, including California, where overdose deaths have risen 1,652 percent, from 109 in 2016 to 1,910 in 2022.
Fentanyl poisoning has killed three babies in the Bay Area since May, leaving the families of three-month-old Phoenix Castro, Winter Rayo, one, and Kristofer Ferreyra, one, heartbroken.
Fentanyl is a deadly drug that is destroying lives across America and has also killed innocent babies. Pictured: Phoenix Castro who died of a fentanyl overdose in May
Fentanyl poisoning has killed three babies in the Bay Area since May, including Winter Rayo, one (left) and Kristofer Ferreyra, one (right)
Baby Phoenix died of a fentanyl and meth overdose in the care of her drug-addicted father David Castro.
She fell asleep on her couch and fentanyl spread over her pink floral romper, poisoning her on May 13 in San Jose, prosecutors said.
Authorities found the drugs next to her bottle, broken glass pipes, aluminum foil and Narcan, which is used to revive people from drug overdoses.
Phoenix's mother Emily De La Cerda was not home at the time of the incident and died in September of a fentanyl overdose.
There were repeated warnings about the welfare of neighbors' children before baby Phoenix died.
But Santa Clara County had changed the “threshold” for child removal, citing its commitment to “racial justice.”
Castro is currently in jail on charges of child endangerment and was denied bail in November.
It was revealed that he and De La Cerda's two other children had already been taken by the provincial Department of Family and Children Services two years earlier.
A social worker assigned to their older children's case warned the day before Phoenix was released from the hospital that she could end up dead in her father's care.
But the baby was sent home with him anyway. She was born with drugs in her system and both of her parents tested positive for cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine at the time.
Castro had met the child's mother, De La Cerda, 39, at a recovery program for addicts.
She was undergoing drug treatment after experiencing withdrawal symptoms during birth at the time of Phoenix's death
Baby Phoenix died of a fentanyl and meth overdose in the care of her drug-addicted father David Castro
Her father Castro is currently in jail on charges of child endangerment. He was denied bail in November.
The number of children removed from their families had dropped from more than 60 in August 2020 to less than 20 in February 2022 as the new Orthodoxy took hold in Santa Clara.
A few months after Phoenix's death, one-year-old Winter Rayo died on August 12 from fentanyl poisoning.
She was exposed to a fatal dose of the drug while sleeping at home in San Jose.
Officers arrived at the family home just before midnight and paramedics discovered the baby had been dead for hours.
Authorities said she exhibited “complete rigor mortis, pallor, fixed/dilated pupils and blue lips.”
Investigators found fentanyl on the nightstand in the bedroom and scraped tools with drug residue on a rug under Winter's body.
Detectives also recovered electronic devices from her parents Derek Rayo, 27, and Kelly Richardson, 28, which contained messages highlighting the use of narcotics in the baby's presence.
Rayo was also seen in photos and videos smoking drugs near Winter, according to court documents.
Rayo and Richardson were charged with murder after waiting at least 10 hours to call 911.
The family had no history with the Department of Family and Children Services in Santa Clara.
On October 18, another baby's life was taken in the Bay Area after one-year-old Kristofer Ferreyra ingested a fatal dose while at home in Fremont.
He went to sleep the night before, just a few feet away from where his mother Sophia Gastelum-Vera smoked the powerful drug, and was found unconscious the next morning and pronounced dead at the hospital, prosecutors alleged.
Authorities alleged she smoked the fentanyl in the bedroom she shared with Kristofer and his four-year-old brother.
A few months after Phoenix's death, one-year-old Winter Rayo died on August 12 from fentanyl poisoning. She was exposed to a fatal dose of the drug while sleeping at home in San Jose.
Her parents Derek Rayo, 27, (left) and Kelly Richardson, 28, (right) have been charged with murder after waiting at least 10 hours to call 911
Detectives recovered electronic devices belonging to Rayo and Richardson, which contained messages highlighting the use of narcotics in the baby's presence
They found cut straws, aluminum foil and empty bags covered in fentanyl, according to court records.
Investigators claimed they found messages on Gastelum-Vera's phone showing how she purchased the deadly drug the night before her son's death.
Her boyfriend told authorities she developed a fentanyl addiction while taking it to relieve rib pain.
She was charged with involuntary manslaughter and child abuse, and last month an Alameda County judge ordered her held in Santa Rita Jail on $135,000 bail.
The Alameda Department of Child and Family Services was referred to the family last year after a domestic dispute.
Just two days after baby Kristofer died, a social worker recommended that his three young siblings remain in his mother's care, even after police found drug paraphernalia in their home.
According to The Mercury News, his death was not even mentioned in the social worker's initial assessment.
It wasn't until Nov. 7, when Kristofer's mother was arrested on suspicion of murder, that social workers filed a new assessment and recommended that the children be placed in the care of the county.
The seeds of America's fentanyl crisis were sown in the mid-1990s, when pharmaceutical companies falsely claimed that “revolutionary” pills would end chronic pain without addiction.
Investigators found fentanyl on the nightstand in the bedroom and scraped tools with drug residue on a rug under Winter's body. Pictured: Rayo and Richardson in court
On October 18, another baby's life was taken in the Bay Area after one-year-old Kristofer Ferreyra ingested a fatal dose while at home in Fremont. His mother Sophia Gastelum-Vera was charged with involuntary manslaughter and child abuse
When regulators finally cracked down on this lie and the use of prescription opioids to treat chronic pain, addicts took to the streets in search of heroin, creating an unprecedented health crisis.
But in mid-2010, dealers also began selling other drugs laced with fentanyl, which is much cheaper and about 50 times more powerful than heroin.
The crisis has ravaged many liberal states, creating deep divisions within the Democratic Party over how to handle it.
Affected families in California have described the state's drug laws as “madness” and claim it keeps their loved ones “tied” to their addiction while dealers can act with impunity.