New Haven — Since January, law enforcement officials across the state have been taking extra care at the scenes of overdoses, making sure they preserve all evidence in the event it could lead to future arrests.

The measures are part of a new protocol — developed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration — that was announced in New Haven Wednesday afternoon with members of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the State’s Attorney’s Office, the DEA and several municipal police departments in attendance.

The idea, Deputy Chief State’s Attorney Leonard Boyle said, is to treat overdose scenes as though they’re crime scenes. Detectives should work not only to determine the source of the narcotics that were used, he said, but also to determine how much the distributors knew about those narcotics.

In cases where officials can establish that a dealer knew the brand or type of drug he or she was distributing was causing serious injury or death, charges harsher than simple narcotics distribution can be brought, Boyle said.

According to Norwich Police Chief Louis J. Fusaro Sr., the new protocol — which also asks police to contact the DEA in the early stages of an investigation and to ensure an autopsy of the deceased is performed — isn’t too different from what his department already was doing.

However, he said, it’s helped to get everybody on the same page.

For example, Fusaro explained, when emergency responders in Norwich took unconscious people to the hospital in the past, police didn’t always learn about those who had suffered an overdose until some time later, at which point the cases had become more difficult to investigate.

Now, with ramped up information sharing among local agencies, as well as the additional help at the state and federal levels, Fusaro said that’s much less likely to happen.

Fusaro said the protocol and investigators’ adherence to it is part of what helped police quickly make arrests in connection to two overdoses on Saturday in Norwich.

In both of Saturday’s overdoses — one an 18-year-old man who died and the other a 21-year-old woman — those affected had used fentanyl-laced heroin from white glassine bags bearing a red ladybug stamp.

By Tuesday morning, police had arrested three men in connection with the heroin. When searching the hotel where they arrested the men, police said they found hundreds of empty ladybug-stamped bags. Police said they believe the arrestees had removed heroin from the stamped bags and repackaged it into plain white ones.

Still, Fusaro noted the difficulty of trying to combat an issue that’s “certainly gotten worse” while at the same time facing budget cuts.

“We’re looking for any types of resources — federal, state and even our own local resources — to put toward this problem because it is a very serious problem,” Fusaro said. “People are dying.”

In Connecticut, 195 people died from heroin and/or opioid-related overdoses in 2012. In 2015, that number was 444.

According to Brian Boyle, who is the DEA’s assistant special agent in charge and is of no relation to Leonard Boyle, there were more than 90 reported heroin-related overdose deaths in the state in January and February alone.

Statistically, he said, it’s likely that two more Connecticut residents will have died of a heroin-related overdose by the end of Wednesday.

He said the rise of the abuse of heroin and opioids currently is the “biggest challenge” in public health and public safety.

“The DEA has seen users purposely seeking out and purchasing heroin and fentanyl from known drug dealers in areas where overdoses have occurred,” Brian Boyle said. “The users know that they could die from taking this heroin, but yet they want the ultimate high. That is the strength ... of this addiction.”

To date, U.S. Attorney Deirdre M. Daly said, the initiative has resulted in federal charges being brought against seven people across the state in connection to both fatal and non-fatal overdoses.

Currently, the DEA’s New Haven Tactical Diversion Squad, state and local police and a team of prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office are investigating overdoses in 15 municipalities, including Norwich.

Fusaro wouldn’t clarify with which case or cases the group is assisting Norwich police but said the collaboration helps send the message that “if you’re going to be involved with trafficking heroin ... you’re going to face some very stiff penalties.”

“It’s always important to get partners involved,” Fusaro said. “When we get together, it’s a force multiplier. We can do more together than we do separately.”

l.boyle@theday.com