Linked to two fatal fentanyl overdoses, Darby man arrested as dark web’s ‘Narcoboss’

Federal authorities have arrested a Darby man they say sold  hundreds of thousands of dollars of wholesale fentanyl on the dark web under the name “Narcoboss” in illegal drug deals nationally that investigators have linked to two deadly overdoses in Portland, Oregon.

Henry Konah Koffie, 32, has been detained on charges of importing and distributing a controlled substance resulting in death. He will be transferred to Oregon for prosecution.

Investigators also linked Koffie to the 2016 death of a Portland State University student, but he isn’t charged in the case, according to the Oregonian.

Authorities began investigating a prolific fentanyl vendor operating as Narcoboss on the dark web marketplace AlphaBay in May 16, after they determined that the synthetic opioid had been mailed from Philadelphia by Narcoboss, according to a criminal complaint. The investigation was a joint effort by the Portland police department, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Postal Service.

They found that Narcoboss had previously sold fentanyl he falsely advertised as “China White Heroin” on AlphaBay, using the moniker “DNMKingpin,” authorities said. One of those sales also resulted in an overdose in Portland in May 2016, although the user survived, authorities said.

Investigators found that Narcoboss made more than 3,700 AlphaBay transactions for a “China White Synthetic Heroin Fentanyl Mix” between July 2016 and June 2017, totalling more than 7 kilograms of drugs and generating $284,800 worth of bitcoin, authorities said. Investigators also found that Koffie, during that yearlong period, had more than 14 packages of suspected fentanyl shipped to his family members from China and Hong Kong, authorities said.

Financial analysts were able to link Koffie with the Narcoboss bitcoin transactions, authorities said.

This month, detectives acting on two federal search warrants seized about 500 grams of suspected fentanyl, suspected micro cellulous (a binding agent used in pill production), scales, and documents and digital evidence from Koffie’s home, authorities said. They also seized $137,000 from his accounts.

Narcoboss also was under investigation by authorities in Pittsburgh and North Dakota.

The New York Times last month detailed how the Internet, where buyers and sellers can interact anonymously, has become a popular, illicit marketplace for fentanyl dealers — and a challenge for the law enforcers trying to collar them.

Fentanyl deaths have spiked in the U.S., with some projecting that opioids could kill 500,000 Americans in the next decade as the addiction crisis worsens.