(The Center Square) – The U.S. Department of Justice announced the results of a darknet operation Tuesday that resulted in 288 arrests, 17 firearms, 1,873 pounds of drugs that included 141 pounds of fentanyl and fentanyl-laced products, and $53.4 million in cash and virtual currencies.
The department’s Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement, along with law enforcement agencies in Europe and South America, was aimed at disrupting fentanyl and opioid trafficking on the internet.
“Operation SpecTor … represents the most funds seized and the highest number of arrests in any coordinated international action led by the Justice Department against drug traffickers on the dark web,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
“Our message to criminals on the dark web is this: You can try to hide in the furthest reaches of the internet, but the Justice Department will find you and hold you accountable for your crimes.”
The operation resulted in over 100 federal operations and prosecutions, including the conviction of Anton Peck, a 29-year-old Florida man. Peck was sentenced to 16 years in prison in December 2022 for conspiring to distribute fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin. Peck shipped drugs through the United States Postal Service after online cryptocurrency transactions, according to court records. Police recovered kilogram quantities of fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin from business and storage locations in West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, and New York City. Peck had a list of more than 6,000 customers across the U.S., according to law enforcement.
The operation also led to the indictment of Christopher Hampton, 36, of Cerritos, California. Prosecutor allege Hampton used high-speed pill presses to create fake pills containing fentanyl and methamphetamine in California labs and sold millions of pills to thousands of customers on the internet.
Hampton was arrested in November 2022. Federal agents seized 450 pounds of suspected narcotics; six pill press machines, some of which were capable of producing thousands of pills per hour; and illegal firearms including a machine gun. Agents also seized over 80 pounds of pressed fentanyl pills, eight guns, and precursor materials to make additional pills in a facility linked to the conspiracy.
The operation also led federal prosecutors to charge Holly Adams, 31, and Devlin Hosner, 33, of Indio, California, with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine and with conspiracy to launder money in May 2022. In that case, agents recovered more than 10,000 counterfeit oxycodone pills and about 60 grams of methamphetamine from a hotel in Riverside county where Adams and Hosner were living.
“The Sinaloa and Jalisco drug cartels, and the global networks they operate are killing Americans by sending fentanyl into the United States. Their associates distribute this fentanyl into communities across America by every means possible, including the dark web,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in a statement. “The DEA is committed to shutting down the fentanyl supply chain from beginning to end, and we will relentlessly pursue the associates of these cartels wherever they hide, even in the dark corners of the internet.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations participated in the operation. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and U.S. Customs and Border Protection also contributed with help from local, state and other federal agencies.
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