Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News (b)
Because these operations easily cross state and national borders and touch the mail stream and a number of financial instruments, the response to them must be coordinated among federal partners. JCODE investigations combine the strengths of the FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Homeland Security Investigations, Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. The Department of Justice, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Department of Defense, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection also provide expertise and support. Europol is an invaluable partner abroad, as are the state and local agencies that provide crucial localized knowledge and boots on the ground support for investigations, searches, and arrests.
When FBI agents, postal inspectors, and members of the Houston Police Narcotics Tactical Team showed up at the upscale apartment of a drug trafficking suspect, it held all the trappings of young money: exposed brick walls and wood floors, tables full of DJ equipment, huge TVs, and several computers. Agents also uncovered stacks of $100 bills in a locked suitcase and found drugs throughout the apartment.
Agents and officers searched four sites that day and arrested six people who were allegedly all involved in an active online drug marketplace. In total, law enforcement seized more than $200,000 in cash and eight weapons from the suspects.
Those arrests were part of the JCODE team’s annual campaign, this year called Operation Dark HunTor. The operation resulted in the seizure of over $31.6 million in cash and virtual currencies and approximately 234 kilograms of drugs worldwide. Law enforcement made 150 arrests, with 65 in the United States.
JCODE was created in 2018 and has grown stronger as it carried out several successful investigations and market disruptions. “The partnerships have only gotten better,” said Special Agent Benjamin Inman, head of the FBI’s JCODE team. “As time has progressed, the scope of the operations has gotten substantially larger.”
Even though the darknet browsers, encrypted apps, and use of cryptocurrencies make the investigations a challenge, Inman says the team manages to find the cracks in these groups. “We do have a tremendous amount of success in both identifying the marketplaces and the administrators and vendors and bringing them to justice.”