As Democrats from across the country flock to Philadelphia for their national convention, they won’t be the only tourists in town.
Hundreds of heroin addicts from other states have washed up in Philadelphia, law enforcement officials say, drawn to a city that has become a major distribution hub for inexpensive, high-grade heroin produced by Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.
Philadelphia is a "mecca" for out-of-town addicts, said Justin Smith, 32, an addict who arrived six years ago from Ocean City, Md., and now sleeps on a stained mattress in a dank roadway tunnel in Kensington in north Philadelphia.
“People come in from all over to get their stuff here,” agreed Dave Parke, a transit police sergeant on the elevated train line that runs along a part of Kensington that cops call the Badlands.
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