Attorney General Jeff Sessions today announced a new
resource to help federal law enforcement disrupt online illicit opioid sales,
the Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement (J-CODE) team.
“Criminals think that they are safe on the darknet, but they
are in for a rude awakening,” Attorney General Sessions said. “We have already infiltrated their networks,
and we are determined to bring them to justice.
In the midst of the deadliest drug crisis in American history, the FBI
and the Department of Justice are stepping up our investment in fighting
opioid-related crimes. The J-CODE team
will help us continue to shut down the online marketplaces that drug
traffickers use and ultimately that will help us reduce addiction and overdoses
across the nation.”
J-CODE will more than double the FBI’s investment in
fighting online opioid trafficking. The
FBI is dedicating dozens more Special Agents, Intelligence Analysts, and
professional staff to J-CODE so that they can focus on this one issue of online
opioid trafficking.
In July 2017, Attorney General Sessions announced the seizure
of the largest dark net marketplace in history.
This site hosted some 220,000 drug listings and was responsible for
countless synthetic opioid overdoses, including the tragic death of a 13 year
old.
In August 2017, Attorney General Sessions ordered the
creation of a new data analytics program, the Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection
Unit, to focus specifically on investigating opioid-related health care
fraud. The same day, he assigned a dozen
prosecutors to “hot spot” districts—where opioid addiction is especially
prevalent—to focus solely on investigating and prosecuting opioid-related
health care fraud.
In November, Attorney General Sessions ordered all 94 U.S.
Attorney offices to designate an opioid coordinator who will customize federal
law enforcement’s anti-opioid strategy in their district.
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