DOJ broadcasts takedown of fentanyl trafficking ring in darkish shadows of the online

The Department of Justice mentioned Tuesday it arrested almost 300 folks and seized unprecedented quantities of medication and money as a part of a world takedown on fentanyl traffickers that centered on the darknet corners of the online.

Dubbed Operation SpecTor, the takedown was led by the FBI and concerned eight international nations.

Agents arrested 288 folks and seized 117 firearms, 850 kilograms of medication — together with 64 kilograms of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced medication — and $53.4 million in money and digital currencies.

The probe centered on the darknet, a bit of the Internet that may solely be accessed through a particular browser that masks customers’ digital footprints.

Traffickers marketed brand-name medication on the networks in change for cryptocurrency, but the capsules had been typically counterfeit and laced with fentanyl, in keeping with Attorney General Merrick Garland.

“The drug traffickers are confident that by operating anonymously on the dark web, they can operate outside the bounds of the law,” he mentioned. “They are wrong.”

Fentanyl is a robust artificial opioid fueling the overdose disaster in America. President Biden and politicians of all stripes are underneath strain from grieving households to crack down on the issue and disrupt worldwide trafficking networks.

Roughly 70,000 of the 107,000 overdose deaths within the U.S. had been linked at the very least partially to fentanyl in 2021, the latest 12 months for which full knowledge is obtainable.

The U.S. authorities says almost the entire fentanyl provide flows from Mexico, typically within the type of counterfeit capsules taken by addicted folks or unsuspecting customers. Families have informed Congress that younger folks and others can entry capsules on the web.

In an instance from the brand new operation, Justice Department officers described a 19-year-old in Colorado who was an distinctive pupil, had a knack for languages and constructed computer systems in his spare time. Family members thought he was ordering pc elements in a sequence of packages that really contained fentanyl bought on the darknet, resulting in his demise from an overdose final 12 months.

Justice Department officers mentioned they used undercover brokers and adopted up on reported overdoses as a part of its probe.

“Our message to criminals on the dark web is this: You can try to hide in the farthest reaches of the internet. But the Justice Department will find you and hold you accountable for your crimes,” Mr. Garland mentioned. “We will continue to illuminate the dark web and we will bring to justice those who try to hide their crimes there.”

At the identical time, he acknowledged the tough nature of the investigations.

“There is a bit of a whack-a-mole problem here, and we are whacking as hard as we can,” Mr. Garland mentioned.

The Justice Department in mid-April charged over two dozen members of the Mexico-based Sinaloa cartel, together with prime leaders, for his or her alleged roles within the illicit fentanyl provide chain.

The members included sons of Joaquin Guzman Loera, or El Chapo, who’s serving a life sentence in Colorado.

On the identical day, the Treasury Department introduced sanctions towards two firms and 5 folks for his or her alleged involvement in offering precursor chemical compounds wanted to make illicit fentanyl.

Notably, Mexico was not on the record of nations concerned within the operation outlined Tuesday. U.S. officers say their neighbor has not been doing sufficient to beat the drug downside.