US Attorney General set up the Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement team to fight online opioid trafficking
31.1.2018 securityaffairs CyberCrime

The US Attorney General announced the creation of the Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement team to fight online opioid trafficking.
Tor network is still a privileged ecosystem for cyber criminals and pedos, law enforcement and intelligence agencies worldwide reserve a significative effort in fighting any illegal practice that leverages anonymizing networks.

The US Attorney General has set up a task force, dubbed Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement (J-CODE), composed of federal agents and cyber experts to dismantle black marketplaces that offer for sale any kind of drug.

The Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement team will be distributed in many cities across the US, the feds are tasked to infiltrate the black markets, identify the operators, and shut down them.

The darknet, and in particular black marketplaces, have a relevant aggregation role for the distribution of illegal opioids. Even if many sellers are overseas, the Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement team will be focused on domestic operators.

During the official announcement of the task force, Attorney General Jeff explained the abuses of anonymizing networks, but he also highlighted that they can be used for good purposes, such as to avoid censorship. Sessions added that the hard work of law enforcement agencies allowed the infiltration of illegal rings.

“Criminals think that they are safe on the darknet, but they are in for a rude awakening,” Sessions said.

“We have already infiltrated their networks, and we are determined to bring them to justice. 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.”

Drugs represent a serious threat to the state, it has been estimated that opioids kill more than 90 Americans every day through overdoses, and this is the tip of the iceberg of a phenomenon that has many other dramatic consequences.

The creation of the Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement is an important investment in fighting online opioid trafficking in term or resources and cyber capabilities.

“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.” concluded the press release published by the DoJ.