Five drug overdoses and a death spark a community alert from law enforcement over fentanyl.

Monterey County health officials and law enforcement agencies were already ringing alarm bells recently about the synthetic drug fentanyl, considered 100 times stronger than oxycodone. The drug has been showing up in counterfeit pills that look like prescription opioids and is believed to be partly responsible for a dramatic increase in overdoses so far this year.

County officials were alarmed enough to send a warning to the public about counterfeit drugs containing fentanyl on Sept. 30.

Starting on Friday, Oct. 18, five overdoses over several days—including one that resulted in the death of a teenager—prompted the Peninsula Regional Violence and Narcotics Team to issue another warning on Tuesday, Oct. 22. Police agencies believe there may be additional unreported overdoses, according to PRVNT.

On Friday evening, Seaside public safety agencies were called to aid a teenage girl who was unconscious and not breathing. She was transported to the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula where she was pronounced dead. It's believed she took an “unknown pill prior to losing consciousness,” PRVNT's press release stated.

For the people who survived their overdoses, some said they believed they were taking a 30mg dose of oxycodone or Percocet.

“Public safety and medical personnel view this issue as a grave danger and while parents should discuss this with their teenage children, everyone should be talking about this issue with their loved ones to ensure people understand the danger of taking non-prescribed medications,” the release said.

PRVNT officials said taking any prescription medication that has not been prescribed to an individual and obtained from a legitimate pharmacy poses a “severe danger.”

The team is investigating the sale of the counterfeit pills and is assisting in the investigation of the recent overdoses.