Police Find Drugs, Cocaine, Cash, Stolen Gun and Dog Who Starved to Death in Home

Published: 3/10/2019, 7:34:52 PM EDT

Police Find Drugs, Cocaine, Cash, Stolen Gun and Dog Who Starved to Death in Home — A 1 kilogram brick of fentanyl (L) and fentanyl pills (R). (Drug Enforcement Agency Media Library)

Chalmette, LA—Detectives searching for a laptop stolen from New Orleans found a stolen gun, marijuana, fentanyl, cocaine, and a dog who had starved to death at a Chalmette home.

A child was also in the residence at the time the home was searched.

After receiving a tip that stolen items were inside a home in the 9000 block of Atreus Street, detectives with the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Office visited the home on March 7.

The officers found a dead dog in an alley next to the house that St. Bernard Parish Animal Control later determined had died of malnutrition and had been dead for several days.

Twenty-five-year-old Keith Nellum greeted the officers at the door, and the officers smelled a strong odor of marijuana coming from inside the house.

After obtaining a search warrant, they searched the house.

Inside, the officers found a Taurus .9mm handgun that had been reported stolen in Jefferson Parish, $4,000 in cash, fentanyl, cocaine, marijuana, digital scales, clear plastic bags, and a stolen laptop.

Nellum, 30-year-old Danielle Green, and 22-year-old Frandesha Davis were all arrested at the scene.

All three face a variety of charges, including multiple drug offenses, animal cruelty, possession of drugs in the presence of a juvenile, and possession of stolen property, according to the SBSO.

“Due to its potency, fentanyl may be fatal if accidentally ingested or if it comes into contact with the skin,” Sheriff James Pohlmann said. “We will not tolerate people bringing these dangerous substances into our parish and putting the lives of our residents and deputies at risk.”

Almost a Form of Warfare

More than 71,500 Americans died of a drug overdose in 2017, according to data released the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The majority—or least 68 percent—of those deaths could be attributed to opioids such as fentanyl.

“[Chinese drug makers] have been using the internet to sell fentanyl and fentanyl analogues to drug traffickers and individual customers in the United States,” said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in a statement on Oct. 17, 2017.

This photo provided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Phoenix Division shows a closeup of the fentanyl-laced sky blue pills known on the street as "Mexican oxy." (Drug Enforcement Administration via AP) — This photo provided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Phoenix Division shows a closeup of the fentanyl-laced sky blue pills known on the street as "Mexican oxy." Drug Enforcement Administration via AP

In August, President Donald Trump urged the Senate to pass a measure to stop synthetic opioid drugs such as fentanyl from being transported into the United States via the U.S. Postal Service system.

“It is outrageous that Poisonous Synthetic Heroin Fentanyl comes pouring into the U.S. Postal System from China,” he wrote on Aug. 20.

The shipment of fentanyl from China to the U.S. is “almost a form of warfare,” Trump said in August. “In China, you have some pretty big companies sending that garbage and killing our people,” Trump added.