An Iraqi translator for the US military emigrated to Texas and became one of the biggest fentanyl dealers on the dark web, leading to a 30-year sentence in federal prison.Â
Alaa Allawi was an Iraqi translator for the US military who emigrated to Texas after the war. He ended up becoming one of the biggest drug dealers on the dark web. He was ranked among the top 10 vendors on AlphaBay, at the time the dark web’s biggest bazaar for all manner of illegal wares. Allawi’s work, slipping small amounts of fentanyl into counterfeit pills, was fueling the latest deadly twist in a national opioid epidemic that has taken more than 230,000 lives since 2017. His case was the first prosecution for dealing fentanyl using the dark web and cryptocurrency in the American Southwest. Allawi is currently serving a 30-year sentence in a federal prison in northern New York.Â
Source: https://www.wired.com/story/on-the-trail-of-the-fentanyl-king/Â
