Dark web fentanyl dealer gets life sentence
By Terry Murry on Wednesday, December 13th, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
PORTLAND – A Pennsylvania man who completed more than 7,800 individual dark net fentanyl sales in less than two years and was linked by investigators to dozens of fatal overdoses across the United States was sentenced to life in federal prison today for distributing a fentanyl analogue on AlphaBay, a former dark net marketplace, that caused the overdoses of three people in Oregon, two of whom died.
Henry Konah Koffie, 38, of Darby, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to life in federal prison and three years’ supervised release.
“Henry Koffie’s overdose victims purchased fentanyl from him on the darknet for as much as $40 a gram, waited for it to arrive, consumed it, and tragically overdosed. Today, individuals seeking fentanyl need only walk to a nearby street corner and hand over a dollar or two for a similar quantity. In many ways, it is dark net dealers like Henry Koffie who paved the way for the fentanyl crisis still gripping our communities,” said Natalie Wight, U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon. “We know no sentence can heal the trauma experienced by families who have lost loved ones, but it is our hope that today’s sentence, and knowing Henry Koffie cannot take any more innocent lives, will bring some degree of closure for them.”
In just under two years, Koffie used AlphaBay to sell approximately 43 pounds of furanyl fentanyl in 7,849 individual transactions to customers in all 50 states. In addition to the three overdoses Koffie was convicted of causing in Oregon, investigators identified at least 27 other people who ordered furanyl fentanyl from Koffie and, shortly after, overdosed and died. Koffie was also linked to 27 other non-fatal overdoses.
On July 20, 2017, the Justice Department, in partnership with the FBI, United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), HSI and IRS-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), seized and shut down AlphaBay, which, at the time, was the largest criminal marketplace online. At the time of its seizure, AlphaBay had operated for over two years on the dark net and was used to sell illegal drugs, stolen and fraudulent identification documents and access devices, counterfeit goods, malware and other hacking tools, firearms, and toxic chemicals throughout the world.
