DoJ Launches 'Darknet' Enforcement Team to Fight Online Drug Trafficking
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US Justice Department is assigning dozens of FBI agents and analysts in an expanded effort to scrutiny the dark web for sales of opioid drugs and related crimes, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a press release.
"The Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement (J-Code) team… will more than double the FBI’s investment in fighting online opioid trafficking," Sessions said on Monday. "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."
The J-CODE initiative will more than double the FBI’s investment in fighting online opioid trafficking, Sessions explained.
The US Centers for Disease control estimates that at least 64,000 US citizens and residents died from drug overdoses in 2016, an increase of more than 20 percent from the previous year.
A bipartisan report by US Senate investigators earlier this month reported that nearly $800 million worth of fentanyl pills were illegally sent by Chinese distributors to US customers during the past two years.
- Source : Sputnik
