Special report: The illicit drug trade is undergoing a seismic shift, with Utah in the middle of the deadly trade of the opioid fentanyl. This is the first in an ongoing series about this modern-day plague.
Herb Scribner
By Herb Scribner

The illicit drug trade has undergone a seismic shift.

Traditional methods of the drug trade have been replaced with the darknet, an obscure part of the internet accessed via specially modified browsers that encrypt traffic, according to the Deseret News.

And Utah has been caught in the center of it all.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Aaron Shamo used the darknet to order bulk amounts of fentanyl, an opioid drug known as the “king of opiates."

In the first of an ongoing series in the Deseret News, the inside story of Shamo’s rise and fall from Mormon kid to alleged drug kingpin is chronicled.

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