Police confirm synthetic opioid was found in system of four dead people in Broadmeadows, Melbourne
There has been a major update on a police investigation a week after four people were found dead at a townhouse in Melbourne’s north.
Abdul El Sayed, 17, was found inside the property in Broadmeadows on June 26, alongside the bodies of 37-year-old Michael Hodgkinson, another 32-year-old man and a woman who was 42 years old.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Two men, a woman and a teenage boy have died.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.On Thursday police said preliminary forensic tests had confirmed there was a synthetic opioid in the system of all four.
The revelation comes just days after the Victorian health department issued an urgent warning about a deadly opioid being sold as cocaine in Melbourne.
The novel synthetic opioid, called protonitazene, is 100 times more potent than heroin and can be life-threatening in even minimal amounts.
“Cocaine and protonitazene are very different substances. Cocaine produces stimulant effects, whereas protonitazene produces sedative effects and may lead to opioid overdose,” the health department said in a statement.
“Using protonitazene with depressants such as alcohol, GHB or depressant drugs (such as Xanax or Valium) increases the risk of overdose.
“There have been recent serious harms in Melbourne associated with a white powder sold as cocaine that contained protonitazene.
“The product appears to produce strong adverse effects such as loss of consciousness, respiratory depression, and life-threatening hypoxia (insufficient oxygen for normal functioning).”
There is no presence of fentanyl in the systems of the four dead and their deaths were still being treated as non-suspicious.
Police are keen to speak to anyone with information about the group or the supply of illicit drugs.
The teenager who died was the father of a baby girl.
“He was a brilliant kid, mate. He had a good sense of humour. He was a good, happy-go-lucky kid,” his uncle Cory said.
“(It’s) just tragic. It really is upsetting.”
Cory lives next door and spotted Abdul in the loungeroom, unresponsive about 2am.
He smashed a window to get inside to check on him and three others before contacting police.
“It’s just tortured me. It’s shocked me,” he said.
Originally published on 7NEWS
