WASHINGTON — Nearly $800 million worth of fentanyl pills were illegally sold to online customers in the United States over two years by Chinese distributors who took advantage of internet anonymity and an explosive growth in e-commerce, according to a Senate report released on Wednesday.
A yearlong Senate investigation found that American buyers of the illegal drugs lived mostly in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. The Chinese sellers primarily used Bitcoin, the digital currency, as their preferred method of payment and shipped the drugs through other countries to reduce the risk of the opioids being seized by customs officials, Senate investigators said.
The 104-page bipartisan report was produced by the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s investigations arm. It was requested by Senators Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio and the panel’s chairman, and Tom Carper of Delaware, the committee’s top Democrat. They will discuss the report’s findings in a hearing set for Thursday and are expected to press law enforcement and Postal Service officials for details on plans to combat the growing opioid shipments.
