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WEBVTT HASSANZADEH HAS THE EXCLUSIVE INVESTIGATION. ERIN: IT’S CALLED CARFENTANYL, AN OPIOID 10,000 TIMES MORE POWERFUL THAN MORPHINE, FAR MORE DANGEROUS THAN FENTANYL. >> IF YOU HAD A COUPLE OF GRAINS OF CARFENTANYL ON YOUR SKIN, IT WOULD ABSORB, AND IT WOULD PRETTY MUCH KILL YOU INSTANTLY. ERIN: AND ALL OF IT MADE IN OMAHA. >> I DON'T KNOW OF ANY OTHER DRUGS THAT HAVE BEEN INVENTED IN OMAHA, NEBRASKA. AND THIS ONE WAS. ERIN: OMAHA POLICE DETECTIVES, THEIR IDENTITIES HIDDEN FOR THEIR PROTECTION, LAY OUT THE EVIDENCE. POUNDS OF THE POTENT DRUG CUSTOM DESIGNED IN PASTEL COLORS. A CALLING CARD FROM THE MASTERMIND WHO MADE IT. >> IT WAS 100% A MARKETING TACTIC. ERIN: INVESTIGATORS SAY THIS MAN, KEN HECHTMAN, AND HIS WIF WENDY, INVENTED AND COOKED THE DRUG AND DEVELOPED A MARKETING SYSTEM WITH A 40-PERSON SALES TEAM WITH PLANS TO DISTRIBUTE THE DEADLY COMPOUND THROUGHOUT THE MIDWEST. >> IT JUST POPPED UP HERE LIKE A LIGHT SWITCH OVERNIGHT, ALL OF A SUDDEN IT WAS HERE. ERIN: THE SCHEME SURFACED IN THE SUMMER OF 2017. OPIOID ABUSE IN OMAHA SPIRALED -- IN SOME CASES IT WAS DEADLY. >> EVERY NIGHT YOU WOULD SEE LIKE A REPORT OF TWO OR THREE OVERDOSES. ERIN: A DRUG THIS POWERFUL? IT WAS SOMETHING NEW, AND SOMETHING IN DEMAND. >> IT CREATED A WHOLE NEW MARKET THAT WE HADN'T SEEN AT ALL. ERIN: DETECTIVES THOUGHT THE DRUG WAS COMING FROM DENVER OR MAYBE KANSAS CITY OR CHICAGO. CERTAINLY NOT FROM FROM A MIDTOWN OMAHA NEIGHBORHOOD JUST OVER A MILE FROM OMAHA POLICE HEADQUARTERS. POLICE WOULD EVENTUALLY LEARN THAT THIS ORANGE, BRICK DUPLEX WAS THE NUCLEUS OF THIS DEADLY OPERATION. A SIX-MONTH INVESTIGATION LED POLICE TO THIS UNASSUMING RENTAL NEAR 27TH AND LEAVENWORTH. INSIDE, INVESTIGATORS FOUND A DRUG KITCHEN, A LABORATO CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A DRUG THAT CAN KILL WITH A TOUCH AND MUCH, MUCH MORE. >> RIGHT, HE HAD HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS OF BOOKS. >> HE WAS BIG ON STONE CARVING, JUST HISTORY ITSELF, WORLD HISTORY -- >> MATHEMATICS. >> POLITICS. ERIN: PLUS POUNDS OF THAT PASTEL CARFENTANIL. EVEN TO BE IN THE SAME ROOM AS THE EVIDENCE POLICE FOUND IN HECHTMAN’S HOME WE HAVE TO WEAR PROTECTIVE GLOVES, GLASSES AND A MASK. >> ALL TIES COME BACK TO THE HECHTMANS. ERIN: KEN AND WENDY HECHTMAN. AN INTERNET SEARCH UNCOVERS KEN’S HARD-TO-BELIEVE STORY, CORDIAL, QUIRKY AND HIGHLY INTELLIGENT CANADIAN BORN JOURNALIST WHO WAS KICKED OUT OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. >> STOLEN CHEMICALS, KEEPING IT IN HIS DORM ROOM, HE WAS CAPTURED BY THE TALIBAN THIS SAYS AT SOME POINT. ERIN: WHAT SOUNDS LIKE FICTION IS MOSTLY FACT. POLICE AND EVEN HECHTMAN’S ATTORNEY, STU DORNAN, WERE ABLE TO VERIFY MOST OF THE INFORMATION ON HIS WIKIPEDIA PAGE. >> I WOULD PUT HIM PROBABLY UP THERE TOP 5%, 10% WITH RESPECT TO INTELLECTUAL ABILITY AND HE HAD A VERY EXCITING LIFE. ERIN: THE DRUGS HE MADE IN HIS MIDTOWN RENTAL COULD HAVE BEEN SOLD FOR HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS. YET POLICE SAY THE COUPLE LIKELY DIDN’T MAKE THAT MUCH AND MAYBE THAT DIDN’T MATTER. >> MONEY IS GREAT, BUT I DON'T THINK IT WAS A BIG THING FOR HIM. IT WAS MORE LIKE THE RECOGNITION THAT GOOD OR BAD, LOOK WHAT I'VE CREATED. >> THE ENTIRE DRUG GAME’S A HUSTLE. THE HECHTMAN’S WEREN’T HUSTLERS. ERIN: INSTEAD OF FULFILLING THEIR PLAN TO RUN A NATIONWIDE DRUG RING, POLICE ENDED THEIR KING-PIN DREAMS AND STOPPED A SCOURGE ON THE STREETS OF OMAHA. >> PEOPLE WERE DYING, PEOP WERE OVERDOSING, FAMILIES WERE BEING DESTROYED ON A DAILY BASIS, THEN IT STOPPED. >> I GUESS IF YOU SAVE ONE LIFE, IT’S GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME. ERIN: THE DRUGS PRODUCED BY HECHTMAN AND THE INVESTIGATION CHANGED A LOT FOR LOCAL LAW-ENFORCEMENT. IT’S WHY ALL OMAHA POLICE OFFICERS CARRY NARCAN, THE OPIOID ANTIDOTE, AND IT CHANGED PROCEDURES FOR HOW L ENFORCEMENT TREATS FENTANYL ELSEWHERE. THEY ARE NOW SERVING A 15-YEAR FEDERAL PRISON SENTENCE. FOR KETV NEWSWATCH 7 INVESTIGATES, I'M

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Carfentanil is an opioid that can be up to 10,000 times more powerful than morphine. Omaha police detectives started noticing the drug in the summer of 2017. Police say the product was found at the scene of countless overdoses. "If you had a couple of grains of carfentanil on your skin, it would absorb and it would pretty much kill you instantly," said an Omaha police narcotics detective whose identity is being protected for his safety. The type of carfentanil officers were finding in Omaha was pastel-colored-- a calling card by the mastermind who made it. "I don't know of any other drugs that have been invented in Omaha, Nebraska, and this one was," said as Omaha police department narcotics detective.Investigators said Ken Hechtman and his wife Wendy invented and cooked the drug. They also developed a sophisticated marketing system with a sales team of about 40 people. "It just popped up here like a light switch. Overnight, all of a sudden it was here," said an Omaha police detective. Detectives thought the drug was coming from Denver, Kansas City or Chicago. They did not imagine that this version of the drug could have been produced in a Midtown, Omaha neighborhood less than 2 miles from Omaha police headquarters.A six month investigation led officers to the rental property occupied by the Hechtmans near 27th and Leavenworth streets. Inside, they found a drug kitchen, a lab and mountains of books."He had hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of books," an Omaha police detective said. "He was big on stone carving, history itself, world history, mathematics, politics."Investigators also found pounds of the pastel carfentanil. Detectives detailed what they know about Ken and Wendy Hechtman. They describe Ken Hechtman as cordial, quirky and extremely intelligent and they say Wendy Hechtman was social. A Wikipedia page reveals Ken's hard-to-believe story as a Canadian-born journalist who attended Columbia University but was kicked out. It also says he was captured by the Taliban. It sounds far-fetched, but detectives said they were able to verify most of it. "I would put him probably up there top 5 to 10 percent, with respect to intellectual ability and he had a very exciting life," said Stu Dornan, Ken Hechtman's defense attorney.The drugs produced by the Hechtmans could have been sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars but police said the couple likely didn't make that much. "Money is great, but I don't think it was a big thing for him. It was more the recognition, like, 'Good or bad, look what I created,'" said an OPD investigator.Instead of fulfilling their plan to run a nationwide drug ring, police ended their dreams and stopped a scourge on the streets of Omaha."People were dying, people were overdosing, families were being destroyed on a daily basis, and then it stopped," said an Omaha investigator.The Hechtman case is the reason all Omaha police officers now carry naloxone, the opioid antidote. It also changes fentanyl-handling procedures for law enforcement agencies around the country.Ken and Wendy Hechtman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute fentanyl. Both were sentenced to 15 years in federal prison in December. Their location is unknown but Dornan confirms that Ken Hechtman will likely request a transfer to a Minnesota prison. Dornan added that the pair will likely be released in less than 15 years.