An assistant U.S. attorney being sent to crack down on synthetic opioids in Western Pennsylvania will focus on Washington County.

Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said he’d appreciate the help in Butler County, but that Washington County likely needs the help even more than Butler.

“Washington may be a little worse off than us,” Goldinger said.

He noted that Washington County deals with both I-70 and I-79, making it more of a drug trafficking hot spot than Butler County.

Eugene Vittone, the district attorney in Washington County, said the extra help will aid in taking their fight against the drugs to sellers instead of just drug users.

“We’ve been attacking the demand side, but this will help us attack supply side as well,” Vittone said.

The Western District of Pennsylvania is one of 10 districts receiving aid against synthetic opioids as part of a federal drug enforcement program called Operation Synthetic Opioid Surge, which Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced last week. The selected districts have high numbers of drug overdose deaths.

In 2017, Washington County had 98 fatal drug overdoses, according to figures from U.S. Attorney Scott Brady’s office. Butler County had 92 in the same year.

The specific target counties are to “prosecute every readily provable case involving the distribution of fentanyl, fentanyl analogues and other synthetic opioids, regardless of drug quantity,” according to a news release published with the program’s announcement.

The assistant U.S. attorney is to serve a two-year term. The attorney has not yet been appointed.