A batch of possibly tainted heroin may be linked to a weekend overdose death in Butler County, authorities warned Monday.

The same bad dope is suspected in about two dozen recent deaths in Western Pennsylvania, mostly in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties.

In Armstrong County, an overdose fatality last week could be connected to the potentially deadly drug.

“We want to get the word out that this (batch) exists,” said Detective Tim Fennell, who heads the Butler County Drug Task Force. “It’s potent and it’s dangerous.”

The heroin, which is being sold in bags stamped with the names “Theraflu,” “Bud Ice” and “Income Tax,” is believed to be laced with the powerful narcotic painkiller fentanyl, according to state and local law enforcement authorities

Fentanyl is supposedly 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, investigators said.

The death toll from the toxic heroin has risen to 22 in the past two weeks, said Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane in a statement Monday.

The suspected lethal batch has made its way into Butler County.

In Middlesex Township, 41-year-old Richard Coward, a heroin addict, was found dead at his trailer park home late Saturday night.

Coward’s wife, Amber, told police that he had injected himself with two “Theraflu” stamped bags that night, said township police Sgt. Randy Ruediger.

“She took a shower and when she came out he was slumped over on the couch,” Ruediger said.

The stamp bags had been destroyed by the time Middlesex police got to the home, police said. As was Coward’s habit, he burned the bags in an ashtray after using them.

“But Amber told that she had seen the bags,” Ruediger said, “and they were marked ‘Theraflu,’” Ruediger said.

Police seized syringes, a spoon and other suspected drug paraphernalia.

Coward was pronounced dead at the scene at 10:48 p.m., said county Deputy Coroner Larry Barr.

An autopsy was done Sunday morning but a cause of death is pending toxicology tests.

“Based on the evidence collected at the scene,” Barr said, “this is a suspected heroin overdose.”

Fennell and Ruediger knew Coward to be a heroin junkie for years. Ruediger, while working for the drug task force last year, arrested him for heroin possession in Middlesex Township.

In Allegheny County, as many as 18 people between the ages of 25 and 51 may have fatally overdosed on the deadly batch of heroin, authorities said.

At least two additional fatalities in Westmoreland County have been linked to the same batch over the past two weeks.

Armstrong County authorities are investigating their own case possibly tied to the tainted batch.

An empty stamp bag of “Theraflu” was recovered from a 32-year-old woman who died Jan. 20 in Rayburn Township near Kittanning, said Armstrong County Coroner Brian Myers.

“The coroner’s office, district attorney and state police are all working to track down the source of the heroin,” Myers said.

Ruediger said that he, too, continues to investigate Coward’s death. He declined to say if police have the name of Coward’s supplier or when he bought the drug.

But he disclosed that the heroin was bought in New Kensington, Westmoreland County.

Kane said her office has joined with local police and narcotics agents to pinpoint the drug’s distributors.

“We are working with the Allegheny County Police Department, the Pittsburgh Police, and their counterparts in the region to get this deadly mix of heroin off the streets of Western Pennsylvania, and to arrest and prosecute anyone caught selling, distributing, and producing these drugs,” she said in her in statement.

“We are contacting hospitals, medical examiners, and police departments in surrounding areas to be on the lookout for these specific stamps of heroin.”

Meanwhile, Fennell acknowledged his concern that the public warning to junkies about the potentially killer dope could have the opposite effect.

It could fuel demand, he admitted, from addicts intrigued by the possibility of a powerful new high.

But Fennell said the decision to go public followed a meeting that he had Friday with representatives of the attorney general’s office in Butler Township

“We discussed this,” he said, “and decided that for public safety we needed to put this out and to warn (users) to be on alert.”