Crocodile Hunters Can't Find Frightening Flesh-Eating Drug

More than two weeks after a Joliet doctor made shocking claims about addicts showing up at his hospital with rank, gaping wounds caused by a flesh-eating fake heroin, the law has yet to locate any of the supposed terror drug.

"I have 25 agents on the streets running down virtually any kind of lead," said Jack Riley, the special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency's Chicago Division.

And that's just in the Chicago area. Riley said hundreds more agents are searching for the mystery drug "crocodile" in the five states he is responsible for: Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota. The drug has not been found in any of those states, Riley said.

Riley also confirmed a report from an an undercover narcotics agent that a dealer on Chicago's West Side was linked to at least one of the Joliet crocodile patients. Agents obtained product in five drug buys from the dealer and submitted it for testing, said the agent, who asked not to be identified.

Three samples were sent to the Illinois State Police crime lab and two to the DEA, said the agent. None of the five samples showed any trace of the ingredients needed to create crocodile, both the agent and Riley said.

The same agent said that a patient diagnosed by a Centegra Health System doctor as likely suffering from the effects of crocodile actually had MRSA.

"I heard that too," Riley said.

Centegra Senior Public Relations Coordinator Michelle Green said on Friday she was not aware of the new diagnosis but would look into it.

The narcotics agent said the Centegra patient developed MRSA from shooting heroin with dirty needles.

According to the Mayo Clinic's website, a MRSA "infection is caused by a strain of staph bacteria that's become resistant to the antibiotics commonly used to treat ordinary staph infections."

An infection can start as a small, red bump and "quickly turn into deep, painful abscesses that require surgical draining," the site said. "Sometimes the bacteria remain confined to the skin. But they can also burrow deep into the body, causing potentially life-threatening infections in bones, joints, surgical wounds, the bloodstream, heart valves and lungs."

Earlier this month, Presence St. Joseph Medical Center Dr. Abhin Singla announced he was treating the first known crocodile cases in Illinois.

“It is a horrific way to get sick," Singla said in an Oct. 8 press release issued by the hospital. "The smell of rotten flesh permeates the room.  Intensive treatment and skin grafts are required, but they often are not enough to save limbs or lives.”

Singla later said there is actually no test to determine whether or not the patients had ingested crocodile, and that none of the five patients he treated were in possession of the drug. He said he based his diagnosis on the distinct "green scaly appearance on the top layer of (skin) tissue."

While they have yet to discover any crocodile, Riley said his agents are going to continue their intense efforts to locate it.

Riley also pointed out that an absence of crocodile doesn't make heroin use safer, and that the drugs sold on the street are not exactly FDA approved.

"There's a perception out there that there's a bunch of guys in white jackets in a sterile lab putting this together," he said. "And that couldn't be further from the truth."

Check out our Facebook page.