Overview

• Denton homicide detectives arrested George Howard Cook II, 45, at his Krum home on Monday after securing a murder warrant under Texas’s 2023 fentanyl law.
• Investigators allege Cook sold fentanyl-laced heroin to 64-year-old Mark Saltsman, who was found dead on December 3 from mixed heroin and fentanyl toxicity with diabetic ketoacidosis.
• At the time of his arrest, authorities discovered heroin, fentanyl, and methamphetamines in Cook’s possession, resulting in a second-degree felony drug possession charge.
• Cook is being held in the City of Denton Jail without bond set and faces prosecution on both murder and controlled-substance possession counts.
• A surge in fentanyl-related overdose deaths prompted the 2023 law to empower prosecutors to charge drug suppliers with murder when their products cause fatalities.