A bipartisan effort is underway to urge the Biden administration to take a deep dive into cyber investigations of fentanyl trafficking.
Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., penned a letter last week to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgram, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas highlighting how dark web opioid traffickers can exploit the anonymity and reach of the internet to make illegal drugs available to American customers.
“We write to urge the administration to prioritize cyber investigations into fentanyl trafficking and to inquire about steps that the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are taking to stop fentanyl from being trafficked into the United States through the use of the dark web,” the senators wrote. “Too often, these drug overdoses are the result of drugs purchased illegally on the dark web. Because of the anonymity that the dark web provides, sellers are able to make illicit drugs available to tens of thousands of customers.”
They said it is “critical that the administration prioritize these investigations to help make sure that fentanyl does not continue to devastate communities across the country.”
In 2021, the United States had more than 100,000 drug overdose deaths, the highest number ever recorded, up from 41,000 in 2012, the senators wrote. In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 75 percent of drug overdose deaths involved an opioid, and 82 percent of opioid-involved deaths involved synthetic opioids, including fentanyl.
“Too often, these drug overdoses are the result of drugs purchased illegally on the dark web,” the letter said. “Because of the anonymity that the dark web provides, sellers are able to make illicit drugs available to tens of thousands of customers. One 2021 study identified more than 28,000 listings for opioid products posted on anonymous online marketplaces.”
Capito talked about the issue during a virtual press briefing last week, saying drug overdose deaths keep rising, and the rise of fentanyl as a cause is “unimaginable.”
The drug is a “killer,” she said. “It is extremely devastating. We see it coming through the southern border but we don’t know how it is coming into our cities as well as we need to.”
The deadly drug is being trafficked internationally through China and Mexico.
“There is a lot coming in, I think, on the internet in the public space that we can use to disrupt this,” she added.
Capito said she read of one incident in New York where fentanyl was brought to a home through a delivery service.
Capito has led a number of efforts to strengthen West Virginia’s fight against the opioid epidemic.
Specifically, she co-sponsored the Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention (STOP Act), enacted in 2018 to decrease the supply of fentanyl shipments to the United States.
Capito also recently announced funding through Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) requests for addiction prevention and recovery initiatives in Martinsburg and Charleston, and applauded the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) announcement to change existing privacy regulations surrounding medical records for those suffering with substance use disorder.