Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News (b)
The April 9 search and arrest of four subjects—led by the FBI’s Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement (JCODE) team and carried out by FBI Los Angeles and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)—was part of a coordinated operation across four continents that has seized more than $200 million in currency and digital assets and over 1,500 kilograms of drugs, including fentanyl.
In Operation RapTor, participating law enforcement agencies in the U.S., Europe, South America, and Asia arrested 270 darknet vendors, buyers, and administrators. (The darknet is a portion of the internet that is not indexed by traditional search engines and is only accessible through specialized software.) The results of the operation were announced today.
More than 144 kilograms (approximately 317 pounds) of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics were seized in this year’s operation, which included arrests in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. Just one kilogram of fentanyl has the potential to kill 500,000 people, according to the DEA. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says synthetic opioids like fentanyl are the primary driver of overdose deaths in the U.S.
The FBI, which established JCODE in 2018 to target drug trafficking—particularly of fentanyl and other opioids—on the darknet, has coordinated global law enforcement operations like RapTor every year since the initiative’s inception.
“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,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “But the ease and accessibility of their crimes ends today.”