Face source: Inspector

It’s one of the oldest law enforcement agencies in the nation. Postal Inspectors remain on the heels of the criminals — targeting theft, disrupting drug traffickers, warning about fraud scams and more.

The Inspection Service does this with approximately 2,400 employees — including nearly 1,300 Postal Inspectors, roughly 500 uniformed Postal Police Offices and 600 professional, technical and administrative support personnel — all working to ensure America’s confidence in the U.S. Mail.

The Postal Inspection Service is turning the tide against opioid dealers on the dark web. Detecting and stopping their shipments is only the beginning; tracing illegal drugs back to their source and shutting them down is the ultimate mission.

In August 2021, a Postal Inspection Service investigation culminated in a 15-year prison sentence for a notorious dark web drug trafficker. Chukwuemeka Okparaeke, aka “Fentmaster,” was responsible for at least 7,000 transactions in synthetic opioids. At least one of these shipments resulted in the overdose and death of an 18-year-old victim. Following Okparaeke’s arrest, Postal Inspectors seized more than 14 kilograms of fentanyl and fentanyl analogues. Inspectors also uncovered more than 80 packages containing synthetic opioids that would have been shipped throughout the United States had Okparaeke not been arrested.

In 2021 alone, 790 synthetic opioid seizures resulted in 985 pounds of drugs off the street.