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Online Takedown Linked To Utah Teen Drug Deaths

drugfreekidscanada.org

U.S. Justice Department officials in Washington say they've taken down an illicit internet marketplace where a Park City teenager bought drugs responsible for a classmate's fatal overdose.

Prosecutors said Thursday that 13-year-old Grant Seaver overdosed on a synthetic opioid known as pink that was purchased on AlphaBay, where some 40,000 vendors offered drugs, counterfeit goods, weapons, hacking tools and other illicit items. Prosecutors say hundreds of vendors advertised opioids like fentanyl or heroin.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other federal officials announced an indictment in California of a suspected administrator of the site, and the Justice Department filed a forfeiture complaint to seize assets connected to the operation.

Seaver and his 13-year-old friend Ryan Ainsworth were found dead last year after taking the drug U-47700, which Utah police have said was easily purchased online.