LIVE: DOJ Announces Results of Major International Operation Targeting Dark Web Opioid and Fentanyl Traffickers

Traffickers on the dark web. This operation resul- ted in o- very ment Cooperation, or Europol. This operation represents the sixth and the most extensive internationally coordinated action since President Trump created J-Code back in 2018 and builds on the success of last year's Operation Raptor. Thanks to the work of this operation, federal prosecutions are being conducted in more than 30 districts across the United States. Of the hundreds of arrests that were made through this operation, I want to highlight one to illustrate the kind of illegal activities that were targeted by Operation Tornado. Thirty-five-year-old Jonathan Gonzalez of South Bakersfield, California, was arrested after being identified as an alleged dark web narcotics vendor under the name Speedy Pharma. He is charged with shipping methamphetamine, black tar heroin, cocaine, and potent K2 paper to multiple addresses across the country. At this individual's residence, federal law enforcement seized nearly 50 pounds of methamphetamine, over 380 grams of black tar heroin, over 580 grams of cocaine, over 40,000 in cash, and three and a half grams of fentanyl. And now, that might not sound like a lot of fentanyl, but remember, the potentially lethal dose of fentanyl is just two milligrams. That means that the amount of fentanyl seized at his residence was potently lethal to over 1,700 people. That's enough fentanyl to kill everyone in a small town or a graduating class of high school or college. Investigators also seized at this same residence 2.8 grams of car fentanyl, which is about 100 times more potent than regular fentanyl. Now, there's no doubt that Operation Tornado saved lives across the country, and there is nothing that will stop this administration's commitment to protecting the American people from synthetic drugs, which are lethal. In just the past week, the Department of Justice has announced the conviction of three members of a violent Cleveland street gang who were found guilty of RICO murder, RICO kidnapping, and drug trafficking. We arrested a Mexican judge accused of accepting a $2 million bribe in exchange for granting bond and ordering the release of a Canadian drug trafficker. We announced a reward of up to $50 million for information leading to the arrests and or convictions of members of Tren de Aragua. And again, the Department of Justice has made each of these announcements in just the past week. These actions are a small sample of the work our federal law enforcement officers and federal prosecutors have been doing every day of this administration. President Trump took office and said, gave us one directive, to make America safe again. Today's announcement on the success of Operation Tornado is a reminder to parents about the dangerous and illegal activities that occur on the dark web. But it's also a reminder that the Department of Justice, in coordination with our partners across the federal government and across the globe, are working every day to protect the American people from drug traffickers who don't care about what happens to your children, don't care about what happens to you, and will do almost anything to make money. I want to thank the FBI, DEA, IRS, CID, FDA. Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, along with all of our federal, state, and local partners, as well as our international partners for their work that led to the historic results of this operation. Thank you. And with that, I will hand it over to FBI Deputy Director Christopher Ray. All right. Good afternoon. First of all, I want to specifically thank Attorney General Garland, as always, for your commitment and, of course, your partnership in helping us to protect the American people from criminal organizations that profit from addiction, violence, and now death. Today, we're proving once again that the dark web is not beyond the reach of law enforcement and that there is no safe haven for criminals who traffic this poison. The FBI is honored to join our law enforcement and prosecutorial partners today as we announce the results of Operation Tornado, the most expansive coordinated enforcement action ever conducted under the Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement Initiative, also known as JCODE. Operation Tornado confronted one of the most urgent public safety threats of our time, the trafficking of fentanyl and other deadly drugs through the dark web. For over a year, our teams, in conjunction with our Homeland Security Task Forces around the U.S., worked across jurisdictions, across borders, and across time zones to identify and dismantle criminal networks operating in the shadows of the Internet. Working alongside our domestic and international partners, we identified prolific darknet vendors, attributed online identities to real-world offenders, traced illicit financial transactions, and dismantled key elements of the infrastructure that enabled these networks to operate. The results of this operation are simply astounding. 300. 354 arrests worldwide. 5.7 metric tons of drugs seized. 4.8 of that 5.7 was drugs seized by officials here in the United States. This includes the seizure of 354 kilograms of fentanyl. Fentanyl. And if you thought the number that the Attorney General referenced of 1,700 people was a lot of people, This was enough lethal doses to kill 177 million. American citizens. We also seized 209 firearms and $230 million in cryptocurrencies and cash. At the center of this unbelievable effort is JCODE, the FBI-led DOJ initiative established in 2018 to unify and direct our government's response to darknet-enabled drug trafficking. Over the last eight years, JCODE has grown into a global enforcement model, bringing together federal agencies, prosecutors, and international law enforcement partners to target the criminal marketplaces and networks fueling the opioid crisis. Through past operations, including Saboteur, Disruptor, Dark Hunter, Spector, and Raptor, J-Code has helped dismantle dark web marketplaces, identify prolific vendors, seize illegal proceeds, and bring offenders to justice. Operation Tornado built on that legacy and represents the culmination of years of coordinated enforcement under J-Code, demonstrating both the scale of the threat. And the strength of the partnerships that we have built to confront it. This operation brought together specialists from not only here in the United States, but across the world to target and take down not only drug traffickers themselves, but financial networks, digital infrastructure, supply chains, and facilitators that these criminals rely on daily. We talk about the value of partnerships because I think this case highlights that piece specifically well. Today's criminal threats, they're not just here in the U.S., they are global. A fentanyl precursor may originate overseas, be advertised through a darknet marketplace, purchased using cryptocurrency, and shipped through multiple countries before ultimately arriving in the hands of an American citizen. No single agency can address a threat of that scale alone. No single country can address a threat. That is why partnership remains our greatest strength. Along with that, I want to thank our partners across the Department of Justice, Europol, the agencies represented behind me, all the other domestic and international agencies who collaboration, intelligence sharing and operational support were absolutely essential. To today's results, the success we announced today was built on trust, coordination, and a whole lot of determination by some very skilled professionals. I have a message for those who want to continue in this illegal activity. If you want to use the dark web to sell fentanyl, synthetic opioids, and other dangerous drugs, let today's announcement serve as a warning. The anonymity you believe protects you is not a shield. We have demonstrated time and time again that even as technology evolves, our law enforcement capabilities evolve even more. Whether you operate from a basement, a warehouse, across the street, or across a body of water, we will work relentlessly to stop you and hold you accountable. The FBI now operates under one single ethos. Justice will find you. And that's exactly what happened here today. Thank you. Thanks, Chris. And Mr. Attorney General, thank you for your leadership. Thank you for supporting DEA. Thank you for supporting our law enforcement partners, the Homeland Security Task Force. And under your leadership and under the Chief of Staff's leadership, Stephen Miller, we are on the hunt. Under the Homeland Security Task Force model, we are working together to take down violent criminals. We are hunting drug traffickers wherever they are, wherever they operate, in our neighborhoods, online, even the darkest corners of the internet. You see, cartels are adapting, but so is the DEA and our global enterprise working with the Homeland Security Task Force. They're hiding on the dark web, behind encryption and digital currency. They believe a few lines of code can cover their tracks, but they are wrong. As the deputy director stated, we together are on the hunt. Make no mistake, they aren't simply cyber criminals. They're drug traffickers using technology to distribute deadly drugs into American communities, killing American citizens. For decades, the DEA and our federal partners have adapted to confront the evolving threats posed by the world's most dangerous drug traffickers and their operations. Today, our mission extends beyond traditional law enforcement. Dismantling a drug trafficking organization means understanding not only how they move drugs, but also how they use technology to communicate, to conduct business, and to conceal their profits. We're combining our expertise, stressing combining our expertise in partnership in narcotic investigations with advanced cyber capabilities and financial intelligence to target those organizations across every aspect of their operations. The Deputy Director and the Attorney General have pointed out our results. They are global results. Whether they're in Bakersfield, California, whether they're in Ohio, whether they're in South America, or on our streets, in our classrooms, or in our kids' rooms, we will continue to hunt the foreign terrorists that prey upon our kids. The incredible results we see here today would not have been possible without the tireless work of special agents, analysts, prosecutors, and law enforcement partners around the world. While drug traffickers may change their technology, they use the nature of their crimes and harm they cause remain the same. DEA will remain on the front lines of this fight. Whether these organizations operate. In our neighborhoods, across international boundaries, by people who hold public office through corruption or behind computer screens, we will find them, we will dismantle them, and we will hold them accountable because our mission is about protecting Americans. This is about America first. This is about Americans first. And lastly, I personally want to thank the president for his leadership. In support of all federal law enforcement, to protect Americans, to secure our national security, and to continue to keep law enforcement on the front lines of this deadly fight. Mr. Attorney General, thank you once again for hosting. Thank you for supporting DEA and our law enforcement partners. And thank you for always being there, always showing up at these critical moments. And I'd like to turn it over to the Chief Postal Inspector, Gary Barksdale. Thank you, Terry. Good afternoon, everyone. I'd also like to start with thanking Attorney General Blanche for his leadership and calling this press conference to draw awareness to the extraordinary work done by law enforcement professionals all over the world. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 70,000 people in the United States die each year from drug overdoses. These deaths are caused primarily by illicit and prescription opioids. Drug-related overdoses claimed the lives of over 80,000 people in 2024 and 69,000 people in 2025. These devastating figures demand immediate, decisive action, and I'm proud to say, along with our partners, law enforcement is actively responding to meet this crisis. Operation Tornado builds on the success of previous operations Spectre, Disruptor, and Hunter that were run in conjunction with our federal, state, and local partners. The drug trafficking organizations targeted by Operation Tornado use the dark web to sell narcotics and then ship these drugs around the world by exploiting the U.S. Postal Service and other carriers. When they utilize the mail for those transactions, these criminals threaten the safety of postal employees and the integrity of the postal network that hundreds of millions in the U.S. and across the globe depend on every day. The United States Postal Inspection Service is dedicated to tracking down and stopping these criminals. By forging vital partnerships with our partners through HSTF and our international partner agencies, we can and we will successfully dismantle dark web marketplaces and disrupt the illicit operations of the sellers. This ongoing global cooperation ensures that major drug trafficking networks are shut down and those responsible are brought to justice. Operation Tornado is a prime example of what we can accomplish together. The deputy director went over the accomplishments. Over 300 suspects arrested, over five metric tons of drugs seized. These accomplishments could not have been fully realized without our international law enforcement partners, specifically through interaction with Europol. That's why I'm very proud to have a post-inspector domiciled to The Hague, who serves as a key international liaison, helping to expand our efforts to protect the U.S. mail worldwide. These coalitions help keep the U.S. mail safe for our employees and our customers while also crippling drug trafficking organizations around the world. So on behalf of the United States Postal Service, I want to thank all of our international and domestic partners. Our commitment is two-pronged, to stop those who would use the U.S. mail to send illegal narcotics and other illegal drugs, and to protect our postal employees and the American public. The Postal Inspection Service strives each and every day to stop criminals from using the mail to send illegal drugs With the combined efforts of our law enforcement partners, we expect continued success in targeting and taking down drug trafficking organizations, therefore keeping the Postal Service, our employees, the U.S. mail, and more importantly, our American communities safe. All right. Thanks, everybody. I'll take a couple questions. Thank you. So, two, one related to this. I was curious if there was any country outside the U.S. that had an unusually high amount of arrests as a result of this. And then my second question is, Gavin Newsom recently took major clemency action, removed a lot of people off of death row in the state of California. I wanted to get your thoughts on that as well. So just the second one. I mean, that's that happened during the end of President Biden's administration as well. He commuted the sentence of a lot of federal. Federal guys on death row, not all of them, but a lot of them. It's unfortunate. I mean, I think that President Trump has talked a lot about the need for capital punishment, especially with certain types of crimes and certain types of murder. And I very much agree with President Trump on that. State law is different than federal law. And governors in most states have the power to do what the governor did. And, you know, I feel badly for the families, the victims, the families of the victims. That had justice served according to the laws and now have a different result. So as for your second question, I don't have an answer to that. Does somebody know? No, I don't have an answer to that. I'm sorry. Good General, when you look at the map of the number of operations connected to this one, one of the things that we always hear about is the source of the scourge of fentanyl is precursors from China. Has anything changed as far as the cooperation with China in the last two years? And then I have a follow-up. Sure. Well, when you say has anything changed, we have a relationship with China. And part of that relationship has been them saying they are committed to stopping the precursors and working with us to stop the manufacturing and production in their provinces of precursors. It's a constant struggle. Not only Between the United States and China, but also China and the and the manufacturers of these drugs, because the chemicals change constantly and then the precursors change as quickly as they're as they're outlawed. So it's not just China, India. We have a problem as well. We're going to. So what I will say is President Trump has talked about our relationship with China and the positive relationship that he has with the president of China. We try. Try to capitalize on that in our levels of talks with Chinese leadership about the need to we need their help to clamp to clamp down on the manufacturing. And so we have had success, not enough. And so we'll we'll keep on working. You have a second question? Right. Yes. And since we're on the subject of China, there is a lot of talk about NVIDIA and the ongoing investigation. into the apparent diversion of NVIDIA chips that are restricted to China using these shell companies. Can you give us a sense, a little overview, of what the Justice Department is investigating as it relates to the NVIDIA chips and related to this woman, Alice Huang, and the relationship with Jensen Huang, obviously, which has been in the news the last few days? So look, the Secretary of Commerce has talked about it over the past couple of days, their role in investigating and regulating the sale of chips to places like China. And if they, it happens regularly that they refer, they seek counsel from DOJ in those investigations, and it's, I'm not going to comment on the status or what it means, except that, except to agree that, yes, that the DOJ has a role in investigating if there are chips that shouldn't be sold, it could potentially be a violation of our export laws, and that could be civil, regulatory, it could also be criminal, depending on the case, and that investigation's ongoing. I'm going, as for the other five, fodder around the CEO and the news reports in the past couple of days, it would obviously be incredibly inappropriate to comment on any investigation that we have into any of that conduct, except to say that, as President Trump said, I think yesterday or the day before, of course, the FBI looks at things like this and is looking at it. And beyond that, I don't have a comment. Regarding the letter that U.S. Attorney Wright sent ordering Senator Blumenthal to preserve his records, can you explain why a U.S. attorney in Texas would be handling that matter and whether Maine Justice leadership signed off on the decision to send that? Well, when you say why a U.S. attorney, I mean, U.S. attorneys, no matter the U.S. attorney, that's their job is to enforce the criminal laws and different U.S. attorneys investigate different So, no, I mean, he's a great U.S. attorney, but why it's there and not some other office is just, any office could investigate that. And we work, we meaning DOJ leadership, works closely with every one of our U.S. attorneys. And so I, you know, I'm the attorney general, so I don't oversee every single thing that's done. But yes, DOJ leadership is working with every U.S. attorney, including U.S. attorney rights on ongoing investigations. Can anyone shed any light on what kind of technology you're using to unmask some of these sellers on the dark web, and to what extent artificial intelligence is being used? I have a follow-up. So I have a bunch of smart people behind me that do this for a living. So does somebody want to address how we catch them? Sure. I think, you know... With any criminal, it's the same. We use a variety of our investigative techniques, whether that's online undercover operations, whether that's online sources, whether that's a variety of technology tools, but it would be inappropriate to tell you exactly what the public, what those tools are, but it's no different than any other of these investigations. Obviously, the internet is a huge concern of ours. SI is a huge concern of ours, and we're deploying, Director Patel has deployed a lot of technology, investigative technology, utilizing SI in the last 21 months to really give us a leg up on. Things like that. And we use a lot of that technology in this specific investigation. And Mr. Attorney General, related to the Blumenthal question, you suggested that Democratic lawmakers could face criminal investigation over statements related to congressional oversight. As we all know, President Trump said that Liz Cheney should go to jail and Adam Schiff should pay the price of prison. He declared Barack Obama guilty of treason. I'm just wondering what specifically a Democrat said that crosses a criminal line, in your view, that the President's statements don't, and what legal standard are you applying to distinguish the two? Well, so it's not just members of Congress, it's anybody, anybody associated with any organization or in any congressman, Republican or Democrat, that you are allowed free speeches allowed. You can be critical of this administration. You can certainly be critical of me and critical of President Trump. But there can come a point when when a. Criticism becomes a threat, and then when a threat becomes something criminal. And what that point is, I've never said that that point has been crossed. I haven't said that. But it should worry Americans that four or five days after an election, the rhetoric is already at this point of... Unveiled or veiled threats against the administration against people outside the administration. You know, you have you have some folks saying it doesn't matter if you've left. We're still going to come after you and investigate you. That is not a crime to say that nobody's saying that's a crime. But it is fair to to keep in mind that. That the way that these cases go, the way that threats cases go, is there are comments which are, of course, allowed. There are threats which can be allowed as well. But at some point, it does become a crime. The Title 18 protects individuals, and there are victims of. Of the type of harassment that becomes criminal. So I'm not trying to say anything sensational when I say that we should be careful. And you're talking about things that President Trump and others have said. And there's nothing wrong with those communications back and forth. The issue is when it becomes actually criminal. So if a threat becomes, so somebody can't do their job unless they're under a threat that they're going to be investigated in an improper way by Congress, there could be a problem there. There's no ongoing investigations, criminal investigations into words that incoming senators or congressmen have said. But I do think that the rhetoric that we saw starting Tuesday night after the night of the election, continuing up until as recently as today, is something that we have to be careful of as Americans. So, Sarah. I had a follow-up NVIDIA question. I was curious if the FBI ever considered giving Jensen Wong a defensive counterintelligence briefing. And if so, if not, why not? Well, there's no scenario in which I could talk about why we would or would not give somebody a defensive intelligence briefing, but there's a lot of, and why it would be the FBI, by the way, as opposed to another agency, it depends on the circumstances. And normally defensive briefings, and I say normally because there's exceptions, but normally defensive briefings are to protect somebody's life, right? So if there's a threat that intelligence hears about or the FBI hears about. Then, of course, we will do a defensive briefing. I'm not sure that that's what this was, but there's a lot of factors that go into whether we give a defensive, whether we, meaning the executive, not the FBI in particular, would give a defensive briefing to somebody who's not in government about any topic. But I don't, I cannot speak to whether one was given, and if it wasn't, why, or if one should have been given. I just, I can't speak to that, Alex. One, I think this is probably better for the deputy director. The DC shooting today, authorities obviously released the name of the subject. This is probably just a yes or no question. Is there any information to suggest this individual was on federal authorities radar at any point? First of all, I think it would be appropriate for me to say that the FBI, and I think everybody behind me, extends our condolences out to the victims of that senseless shooting and tragedy. And to your question, sir, investigation thus far, MPD has the lead on that. MetroPD has the lead on that. We are assisting them. There is nothing that we've uncovered in our files that we were watching him prior or anything. That was one of the first checks that we did early on. And so nothing at this point in the investigation. But again, I caveat that with the fact that we're only, what, four or five? Five hours into this investigation, so we will continue to work with Metro PD as and support their investigation as needed. And then the attorney general, we know this DOJ aggressively investigated, you know, potential voter fraud targeting the midterm elections in 2020. Remember, Attorney General Barr did come out and say that he did not see any evidence that would tip any elections. Are you prepared to say that you've not thus far seen any evidence of mass fraud that would have tipped any of the elections we witnessed last week? Well, there's a number of questions in that. That have different answers. I mean, there are hundreds of ongoing criminal investigations that we've talked about for weeks and weeks into fraud associated with voting and elections. And those aren't stopping because November came in wet. Those are ongoing. I expect those will continue for the foreseeable future. I mean, we've charged. I don't know the exact number, but we're close to 300 individuals with illegal voting, either because they're here illegally or they're not eligible to vote. We have ongoing cases and investigations in various states surrounding voter process. So, no, I'm not—if you're asking whether we have launched criminal investigations or civil investigations out of what happened out of any election last week, except for the one that's already been reported out of Alaska, Let's go, which again. It has nothing to do with what happened last Tuesday. It started before then. Thank So, yes, we are actively and will continue to investigate election integrity cases criminally and civilly. And that wasn't expected to start you or stop no matter what the results of the election were last week. And that will continue. very Two weeks ago, before the election, the Alaska investigation, as you just mentioned, was a priority of the department. much. Has that? Fallen off a little bit as far as being a priority. Is that still full steam ahead? What can you tell us about that investigation in Alaska? The priority of investigating a criminal potential fraud doesn't stop because the election winner or no matter who wins or loses. I don't even think that race has been decided yet. I don't I don't know. But no, that investigation remains where it was, which means I'm not going to talk about it. But it's an investigation. So a couple just a couple more. I wanted to ask you what. When did the Justice Department learn with regard to NVIDIA that Alice Wong might be a suspected Chinese asset? And there's been concerns raised that the Commerce Department was giving favoritism to NVIDIA and MegaSpeed, which is Alice Wong's company. Do you share the concerns that maybe the Commerce Department was impeding the ability to uncover the smuggling network that Alice Wong was involved in? Well, your first question assumes something that I have never said and that I don't know to be true. So you assume that DOJ... learns that she is, in fact, a spy. I'm not. Nobody said that. I certainly haven't said that. And I don't. All I said a minute ago and all that I think I will say is that, of course, DOJ is investigator looking at it. So there's no there's no conclusions reached by the Department of Justice or by me or by Director Patel around who she is or is not. I don't have concerns with the Commerce Department. I don't. We have a good relationship with the Commerce Department. I've read some of the stories, which, you know, are sourced or not sourced. And so I don't have any. But, no, I don't have. The answer to your question is no, I don't have any concerns. Can you just kind of. Going back to this letter from U.S. Attorney Wrights, can you just kind of describe the Justice Department's posture toward congressional investigations more broadly, and whether you think we'll be seeing more letters like this one coming out of the U.S. Attorney's offices toward lawmakers? And he also invokes civil rights law, and I was wondering if you might expect to see more of that type of... Well, I don't I can't predict the future. I'm not sure what's going to happen with respect to Congress and the Department of Justice in the future. So I can't predict whether there'll be more letters like this by our relationship with Congress, meaning the Department of Justice and the executive remains the same that it's always been. I mean, they Congress has an extremely important oversight function that allows them and actually requires them to do their jobs and conducting oversight. I have a job as the attorney general to protect the executive's rights, but also to be responsive in the right cases for oversight, which is what we've done the last. year and a half, and that's something that we'll continue to do. I am optimistic, as the president is, that we will have a relationship with Congress that is productive. That doesn't mean that we're going to agree. That doesn't mean that every time they ask for something, they're going to get it, because there may be a reason why we believe they're not entitled to. But I certainly am optimistic that there will be some cooperation and some cooperative efforts between the executive and the incoming Congress, but we will see. Thank I'll take one more question. Go ahead. Just another one on NVIDIA. Singapore banned Alice Wong from re-entering the country after she left in February. Did that action from Singapore cause any conversation or additional probe from DOJ when that happened? And if not, why not? I mean, by your statement, you. I'm assuming what you're saying is true, so that they banned. Okay, I accept that because you're saying it, but I don't have any information around what resulted from another country banning an individual from their country. Sometimes that certainly could result in action by the United States, and sometimes it doesn't result in any action. But I can't speak to that. I'm sorry. All right. I appreciate everybody. Thank you.