The fentanyl crisis poses a grave threat to public health and national security. Its production and distribution pipeline is complex and involves a myriad of actors. Specialized brokers connect chemical suppliers in China and India with Mexican transnational criminal organizations, who in turn manage intricate logistics networks to move large quantities of fentanyl to market.
But the illicit supply chains feeding precursor chemicals and pill manufacturing equipment often leave corporate and digital footprints that investigators can exploit. Chemical suppliers register front and shell companies to legitimize their activities, online personas promote and sell chemicals and pill presses on social media or e-commerce sites, and shipments of precursors and pill-making equipment appear in bills of lading.
To detect these clues, investigators need access to a broad suite of publicly and commercially available data that, when used together, paint a more comprehensive picture of illicit fentanyl networks and their supply chains.
Watch this masterclass originally aired on November 13 at 11am ET on combining global corporate and trade records from Sayari with digital footprint data from Fivecast to more effectively and efficiently target, disrupt, and dismantle the networks fueling the fentanyl crisis.
The agenda will include:
- A brief overview of the role of pill-making equipment in the fentanyl crisis
- A discussion of typologies commonly found in illicit networks supplying pill-making equipment
- A case study illustrating how Sayari and Fivecast data can together illuminate the broader corporate and trade infrastructure of an illicit pill-making equipment network
This masterclass is for government analysts and investigators looking to target, disrupt, and dismantle fentanyl supply chains.
