New team targets online opioid sales

WASHINGTON — A new team of federal agents is targeting online trafficking of fentanyl, a powerful narcotic driving a rising number of overdose deaths across the U.S.

So-called darknet sales are a challenge to law enforcement that in some cases can be more vexing than even drug cartels. Attorney General Jeff Sessions doubled the number of federal agents working such cases, saying online vendors are “pouring fuel on the fire of the national drug epidemic.”

The Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement team then began targeting vendors who send illicit fentanyl produced overseas to homes across the country. They made eight arrests in their first operation and seized 2,000 lethal doses of fentanyl.

Agents on the enforcement team say it forces a new level of cooperation that is necessary in increasingly complex darknet cases.

It’s part of the Trump administration’s tough approach to the drug crisis that has focused on harsh punishments for dealers. Critics say the overall strategy resembles a return to failed drug-war tactics and that the record $4.6 billion included in the spending plan the president signed last month is not nearly enough to establish the kind of treatment system needed to reverse the crisis.

But there’s bipartisan agreement that more resources and new restrictions are needed to stem the stream of opioids entering the U.S. from overseas, especially China, and into households through the U.S. mail.

Darknet marketplaces are thriving, even after authorities in recent years dismantled two of the most notorious, the Silk Road and AlphaBay, where hundreds of thousands of customers bought not just illegal drugs but weapons, malware and counterfeit and stolen identification.

“It’s not enough simply to take the sites down,” acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard Downing said. “Vendors look for another opportunity, another site, another place where they can go and sell their drugs and guns.”

In one operations, investigators from several agencies made a list of “targets,” not just the fentanyl peddling vendors, but buyers and users, then set out to contact them, building on existing intelligence. They spoke to more than 160 people, getting a clearer picture of the landscape, said Kyle Rau, of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

“They share their secrets, they share their tradecraft,” said Emily Odom, chief of the FBI’s Hi-Tech Organized Crime Unit. “They’re working together, so we have to do a better job working together as well.”