Police in Louisiana arrested a 30-year-old mother after her six-week-old infant died from fentanyl exposure.
Meghan Cortez of Houma was being held by the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's Office on a $500,000 bond after her arrest on Monday.
Authorities say they were called to a home in February after receiving reports of an unresponsive child.
The infant was immediately rushed to a local hospital, where they were later pronounced dead.
Following an investigation, detectives determined that the mother had been using heroin just hours before the incident, according to WWL-TV.
In April, the Jefferson Parish Coroner classified the infant's death as a homicide by fentanyl overdose.
Regardless of how the narcotic entered the child's system, DEA experts reveal it doesn't take much of the substance to be deadly.
"The New Orleans division, which consists of the entire state of Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, and Mississippi, we see fentanyl poisonings every single day," Special Agent of the New Orleans DEA Field Division, Steven Hofer, said.
In recent years, local kids have allegedly fallen victim to the drug.
Kenner Police reported the death of a one-year-old in 2023 after the coroner found a fatal dose of fentanyl in their system.
In 2022, a two-year-old boy in Baton Rouge died after overdosing three times on fentanyl found inside his home.
The Orleans Parish Coroner disclosed that of the 500 accidental drug-related deaths last year, nearly 86 percent were fentanyl-related.
