As drug dealers turn to technology to try and hide from law enforcement, detectives are having to also do so to try and tamp down overdoses seen across the country.
The Fauquier County Sheriff's Office was recently able to make an arrest after turning to technology.
Specifically, they had to scour the encrypted messaging app Telegram to arrest Shayan Seifzadeh, 18, of Ashburn, Va., last week. Seifzadeh is accused of selling LSD and mushrooms to a 13-year-old girl who overdosed but survived.
Captain Jason Romero said this case provided a prime example of how detectives are keeping up with advancements in technology to crack down on overdoses.
"This particular case involved using a website the dealer was using to conduct his sales. We created an online persona and were able to infiltrate his website and order directly from the source. Fortunately, he delivered, and was delivering from Loudoun County out here to Fauquier, where we took him into custody," Romero said. "This looked like a website created through the Telegram app that he used to advertise his goods to keep potential customers on the hook for what he had available, and of course, you conducted actual transactions through the messaging app."
While this case did not involve fentanyl, Romero said detectives are constantly working to stay ahead of people who may sell dangerously laced drugs.
He said encrypted messaging apps like Telegram and Signal are ways dealers try to conceal their identity and communications from law enforcement.
"You can hide behind the source that you're using. The internet, itself, masks the identity of the source," Romero said. "We make every effort to try and identify the source of the drugs for overdoses that occur in Fauquier County. We do find that when we are able to identify a source, it's generally outside of our jurisdiction - whether it be the District of Columbia or even Maryland. So, we have federal resources we partner with to further those investigations. We make every effort on every overdose to try and get to the source. This one just happened to be one that delivered to us."
However, challenges extend beyond these apps.
One primary example is the use of the "dark web," which is a portion of the internet that requires you to have specific authorization or software to access in order to even further conceal the identity of people selling certain products like drugs.
"Generally, these things take place on the dark web, which makes the investigative effort that much more difficult," Romero said. "The use of the dark web and internet, in general, created different challenges that weren't necessarily prevalent 10, 15, 20 years ago."
Romero could not provide specific strategies when investigating transactions over the "dark web."
However, he said similar strategies to what was used to arrest Seifzadeh.
"This traditional police method of introducing an informant or undercover officer to further the investigation is classic police work. It worked perfectly in this case," Romero said. "We use our resources, whether they be undercover or cyber resources in conjunction with our federal partners, as well as just the surrounding jurisdictions, to share information and try and get it out there. If we have a particular target that happens to not be in our area, we make sure that information is disseminated throughout the Northern Virginia region.
In 2022, the Fauquier County Sheriff's Office saw a decrease in overdoses but still responded to 46 such incidents, nine of which were deadly.
Virginia saw 1,951 fentanyl overdoses in 2022, which was also a slight decrease from the year before.
Meanwhile, there were 105,452 total overdose deaths throughout the country in 2022. Of those, 79,770 were from opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They don't specify which of those opioid overdose deaths were from fentanyl. The total number, too, was a slight decrease from the 107,573 deaths the year before.
Romero said parents need to help the cause by closely monitoring what apps and websites their children are using.
"I think all of them are worthy of your attention. Just think, years ago we would tell parents to monitor their kids' phones for online enticement-type scenarios for human trafficking. The same goes for drug use. If you're keeping tabs on what your kids are having access to and the types of communications they're having on their phones, you should be able to identify these things pretty easily," Romero said. "We try and want to cut the head of the snake, so to speak, so these overdoses can't perpetuate. We'll see where this one goes. We're just very fortunate to stop the bleeding where we did."