In a massive global crackdown on fentanyl trafficking on the darknet, U.S. and international law enforcement agencies have arrested nearly 300 suspects and seized a large cache of drugs, cash, virtual currency and weapons, officials announced on Tuesday.
The law enforcement action dubbed Operation SpecTor spanned three continents and involved the collaboration of eight countries. It was part of a Justice Department initiative led by the FBI known as JCODE, which aims to dismantle online drug markets.
The operation netted 288 arrests, 850 kilograms of drugs, including 64 kilograms of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics, $53.4 million in cash and virtual currencies and 117 firearms.
The total number of arrests was the most ever for any JCODE operation and more than double that of the previous operation, officials said.
The Justice Department described the takedown as “the largest international law enforcement operation targeting fentanyl and opioid traffickers on the darknet.”
“Our message to criminals on the dark web is this: You can try to hide in the furthest reaches of the internet, but the Justice Department will find you and hold you accountable for your crimes,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference in Washington.
Officials said they collaborated with law enforcement agencies in eight countries, including Austria, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Brazil and the United Kingdom.
The operation is part of a broader effort by U.S. law enforcement agencies to curb fentanyl trafficking.
Last month, the Justice Department announced changes against the Sinaloa Cartel, a notorious drug trafficking organization based in Sinaloa, Mexico, and its facilitators around the world.
Garland described the cartel’s fentanyl trafficking operation as “the largest, most violent, and most prolific” in the world.
The Sinaloa is one of two major Mexican cartels that dominate the U.S. fentanyl market. The other one is known as the Jalisco cartel.
Law enforcement officials say the Sinaloa cartel has been flooding drugs into the United States for more than 15 years.
Officials say the cartels cook fentanyl using precursor chemicals imported from China.
The announcement comes at a time when the U.S. is grappling with an opioid overdose crisis that claimed more than 100,000 American lives in the 12-month period ending in August 2022.
Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl were behind more than two-thirds of the deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The alarming spike in fentanyl deaths has prompted Republican demands that the Biden administration label the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and unleash the full force of the law against them.
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