FBI Director Kash Patel just delivered a crushing blow to drug dealers that will leave them scrambling
The Biden administration let America’s drug crisis spiral completely out of control.
Now the new sheriff in town is cleaning up the mess.
And FBI Director Kash Patel just delivered a crushing blow to drug dealers that will leave them scrambling.
Operation RapTor nets 270 arrests across four continents
FBI Director Kash Patel announced the results of a massive global operation that dealt a devastating blow to darknet drug trafficking operations.
Operation RapTor targeted criminals hiding behind the anonymity of the dark web to peddle deadly drugs like fentanyl toAmericans.
The coordinated international effort resulted in 270 arrests of darknet vendors, buyers, and administrators across the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia.
Law enforcement agencies seized more than $200 million in currency and digital assets along with over 1,500 kilograms ofdrugs
Most shocking of all, authorities confiscated more than 144 kilograms of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, just one kilogram of fentanyl has the potential to kill 500,000 people.
That means the drugs seized in this operation alone could have killed more than 72 million Americans.
Patel declares war on cowardly drug dealers
Director Patel didn’t mince words when describing the criminals who hide behind computer screens to destroy American lives.
“By cowardly hiding online, these traffickers have wreaked havoc across our country and directly fueled the fentanyl crisis and gun violence impacting our American communities and neighborhoods,” Patel stated. “But the ease and accessibility of their crimes ends today.”
The operation included arrests in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
In Los Angeles, FBI agents raided what they described as a major distribution center for a massive methamphetamine and cocaine trafficking ring operating on the darknet.
Agents discovered an organized criminal enterprise with office equipment, computers, mailing supplies, and large quantities of illegal drugs ready for shipment.
Four suspects were arrested who allegedly operated approximately 10 darknet vendors across 17 different illegal marketplaces.
The deadly reality behind fake pills
The human cost of darknet drug trafficking became painfully clear through the story of Reed Churchill.
The 27-year-old from Arkansas was a star athlete who excelled at tennis and baseball throughout his youth.
Reed died in 2022 from what he thought was oxycodone but turned out to be a lethal dose of fentanyl purchased on the darknet.
His father, Dr. David Churchill, shared a heartbreaking warning about the dangers lurking in the digital shadows.
“If you didn’t get the pill yourself from the pharmacy with the prescription with your name on it, don’t take it,” Dr. Churchill said. “These are not good people you’re talking to on the darknet, whether it’s about drugs or pornography or whatever is on there. Nobody on that side of the computer has any good intentions for you.”
Reed’s mother Penny described the devastating impact on their family.
“It’s just soul sucking. Life won’t be the same. We won’t have a wedding. We won’t have his grandkids. We won’t get to see him progress. We’ve been robbed. We don’t want anybody else to have to go through that,” she said.
Two California men were sentenced to federal prison for supplying the fentanyl-laced pills that killed Reed and multiple other victims.
WATCH:
Darknet marketplaces masquerade as legitimate businesses
Aaron Pinder, unit chief of the FBI’s Hi-Tech Organized Crime Unit, explained how these criminal operations have evolved.
“The darknet vendors that we investigate, they truly operate on a global scale in their ability to reach and sell drugs to customers out there,” Pinder stated.
These illegal marketplaces are designed to look like legitimate e-commerce sites complete with shopping carts, product reviews, and customer service.
But instead of selling household goods, they peddle cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, and other deadly substances.
FBI analyst Katie Brenden described the deceptive nature of these operations.“One of the things that makes a darknet marketplace so dangerous in the eyes of law enforcement is the fact that it’s such an easy to use platform,” Brenden explained. “There’s a lot that is put into place that makes it appear to be legitimate, when what’s really happening is there are people in garages or basements that are using pill presses to make their own pills and sell them online across the country and sometimes across the world.”
JCODE continues the fight against digital drug dealers
The FBI established the Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement (JCODE) team in 2018 specifically to target drug trafficking on the darknet.
The agency has coordinated global operations like RapTor every year since JCODE’s inception.
One distributor known as “JoyInc” had allegedly been operating since 2018 and was described as one of the most prolific distributors of methamphetamine and cocaine to ever operate on the darknet.
Special Agent Pinder emphasized the FBI’s commitment to protecting Americans from these digital predators.
“We’re trying to keep people safe,” Pinder said. “The FBI mission statement is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution. And that’s ultimately what JCODE is about. We have become very adept at identifying the individuals behind these marketplaces, no matter what role they’re in, whether they’re an administrator or a vendor, a money launderer, or indeed a buyer.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that synthetic opioids like fentanyl are the primary driver of overdose deaths in the United States.
Under Director Patel’s leadership, the FBI is sending a clear message that hiding behind computer screens won’t protect drug dealers from facing justice.
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