Special Agents Crypto Fentanyl Sales Warnings Come at Dark Time for Poker Sector

Written by:
Jagajeet Chiba
Published on:
Oct/14/2021

Speaking at last week's CoinGeek Times Square conference Special Agent IRS Criminal Investigation, Richard Reinhardt, warned of the illicit sale of the drug Fentanyl through the blockchain causing countless number of deaths and, just one week later, we learn that poker pro Layne Flack was the latest victim of this scourge.

"It's no mystery to anybody that cryptocurrencies is becoming popular with criminals so where we get involved in that is more on the peer-to-peer side," Reinhardt said.  "Also we are doing more work with Bitcoin ATMs, trying to find bad guys using those."

And a vast majority of these "bad guys" are involved in the sale of deadly Fentanyl, as Reinhardt went on to explain.  His agency has made it a top priority to go after Fenyanyl sales first and foremost, followed by romance schemes and the defrauding of the elderly.

"It's not like we just go into a bank account and we can see anything that we want.  There is a lot that happens to get to that point but one example I will give you is we will get information from an attorney's office.  They do closings, there were emails compromised, and the wires will be directed.  We'll follow that money into a bank account and see how that individual uses it. 

"So I will give you an example of a guy who was on Facebook advertising (that) he buys and sells Bitcoin.  We tracked these business compromises to his account, so then we get the bank account, we analyze the deposits that look suspicious in there and then we do some 'covert' stuff to get to that guy, whether it's send in a confidential informant or one of us to try to do business with that guy and try to engage him and try to get the wallet addresses."

William Callahan, Director of Government & Strategic Affairs, Blockchain Intelligence Group and also a former Special Agent for the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency, made it abundantly clear that these agencies will use every tool in their toolbox to go after the bad guys, again with a special emphasis on Fentanyl sales.

"A lot of investigations into crypto involve overdose deaths sold over the dark Web through the blockchain," he stated.  (The) Feds are gonna go after you if you’re tied to overdose deaths," Callahan vowed.

While it is unclear whether Flack obtained Fentanyl over the dark Web via cryptocurrencies, the cause of his death was confirmed by the Clark County, Nevada coroner to our own Thomas Somach late Wednesday.

“We show cause of death is listed as fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine intoxication,” Clark County coroner Melanie Rouse told Gambling 911. “The manner of death is accident.”

Flack was just 52 at the time of his passing nearly three months ago.

Layne-Flack-011421.png
(Photo) Poker pro Lane Flack was very upfront about his struggles with drug use over the years

Both Reinhardt and Callahan are heavily engaged in working with blockchains such as Bitcoin SV to prevent the sale of Fentanyl and other deadly drugs.

"It is a big initiative of ours to start investing money in cryptocurrencies with working with guys like these," he said, pointing to the rest of the panel, each of whom are committed to quashing criminal activity through tools widely employed on the Bitcoin SV Blockchain. "And get the tools necessary to follow this money," Reinhardt concluded.

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com  

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