The U.S. Justice Department
released the below information:
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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