--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's December 10th, and this is a Sunday edition.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for joining us, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Today, we're discussing a two-year investigation into the death of a Washington, D.C. woman that led to dozens of people charged and millions of dollars' worth of goods seized by authorities. Joining us is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce to talk about Diamond Lynch and how her death led to the destruction of a national drug ring.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, Tim, who was Diamond Lynch?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Lynch was a 20-year-old D.C. resident who overdosed on fentanyl two years ago. She had been trying to recover from drug addiction, had OD'd at least once before and was saved with Narcan. She apparently relapsed shortly after her son's first birthday.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to authorities, she took a single pill that she thought was Percocet, but it turned out to be laced with fentanyl, and it caused her to fatally overdose.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Her death started an intensive investigation by the DEA and FBI into the drug trade in the U.S.
--:-- [Audio clip of U.S. Attorney Matt Graves at a press conference on November 20th]
--:-- U.S. Attorney Matt Graves: She had a relapse, and she reached out to her old supplier, who had previously caused her to overdose in November 2020. What she got from him was a fake pill. The DEA reminds us that one pill can kill, and unfortunately, for Ms. Lynch, it did.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Unfortunately, Lynch's story is one that is taking place more often with the spread of black market drugs, especially fentanyl.
--:-- [Audio clip of DEA Administrator Anne Milgram talking to Congress about the drug's potency at a hearing earlier this year]
--:-- DEA Administrator Anne Milgram: We want everyone to understand the risk of fentanyl. It is the deadliest drug we've ever seen widespread in the United States. It is 50 times more addictive than heroin, and just a tiny amount can kill someone.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So many Americans do not know that they're taking it and they're dying. Annual overdose deaths in the U.S. jumped 30 percent year to year after the onset of COVID and they continued to rise since.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The problem is especially acute in Washington D.C. where Mayor Muriel Bowser has declared a public health emergency while the district is on track for another record year of fatal overdoses.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The drug crisis is being driven by illegal opioids sourced from Mexico. There's no quality control standard among Mexican drug cartels, and their illegal drugs all contain fentanyl in inconsistent amounts.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That makes it very difficult to measure out exact dosage, and when you're dealing with fentanyl, just a tiny amount can be fatal.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, Lynch's death sparked an investigation that ultimately proved to be very significant. Specifically, her activity on Instagram, investigators were able to trace a cross-country drug operation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So far, a total of 26 people have been charged with various drug crimes, and 23 of those are in custody. That includes two people convicted of providing the fatal dose to Lynch, Larry Eastman and his older sister, Justice.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Larry was sentenced to over 11 years in prison. His sister received a three-year sentence.
--:-- [Audio clip of DEA Administrator Anne Milgram talking about the arrests last month]
--:-- DEA Administrator Anne Milgram: DEA identified the Eastman's source of supply and the people who were responsible for transporting fentanyl from Los Angeles to D.C. Those individuals have been charged. We also identified additional distributors of fentanyl in Los Angeles and the people who were working to get fentanyl from Mexico into Los Angeles and ultimately to Washington, D.C. Those individuals have been charged.
--:-- Tim Pierce: DEA also identified additional sources of supply and distributors in Los Angeles, in San Diego, and here in Washington, D.C. Those individuals have been charged.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Those arrested in connection with this case generally live in either California or the D.C. metro area. According to authorities, suppliers in California receive drugs from cartels in Mexico and then shipped them across state lines to suppliers and dealers in the D.C. area.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The breakup of this ring also involved the confiscation of a lot of contraband as well.
--:-- [Audio clip of U.S. Attorney Matt Graves going through the confiscation of contraband]
--:-- U.S. Attorney Matt Graves: In this case alone, we have seized to date over 20 kilograms of fentanyl powder and approximately a quarter million pills. We know that drug trafficking on this scale is a magnet for violence and we have predictably also seized a large number of firearms Over 30 firearms to date including six machine guns
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, how did authorities track down the suspects? Mostly through Instagram.
--:-- Tim Pierce: It appears Instagram was the main channel of communication between suppliers, dealers, and consumers.
--:-- [Audio clip of DEA Administrator Anne Milgram again]
--:-- DEA Administrator Anne Milgram: Almost every single defendant in this case used Instagram to find their sources of supply. to find new avenues of distribution, to pick the color of the pills, the amount of pills they were ordering, and the price that they would pay. They used Instagram to coordinate shipments and to work out how they would get payment.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And it's not just Instagram, but social media in general that has facilitated the illegal drug trade in the U.S.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Dozens of family members of people who died from illegal drugs sued Snap Inc., which owns Snapchat. The lawsuit filed earlier this year said Snapchat's role in the drug trade was, quote, the foreseeable result of the designs, structures, and policies Snap chose to implement to increase its revenues.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Snap responded with a statement that said the lawsuit was riddled with false claims and ignored Snap's efforts to crack down on illegal drug trafficking.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And for its part, Meta, which owns Instagram, bans drug sales on the platform.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And as important as the platform was to the drug ring, it was just as important to law enforcement who tracked down the suspects.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Milgram said that kind of work will be near impossible to do if more apps move to encrypted messaging.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This kind of work to protect the public will become increasingly difficult, if not impossible, if social media companies implement warrant-proof end-to-end encryption that simply turns off the lights and looks the other way while criminals use these platforms to spread poison in our communities.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Meta, the company that owns Instagram, announced just this past August that it intends to do just that.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, where is the supply chain coming from? Is this all Mexico?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Mostly from China and Mexico. Chinese manufacturers make what are called precursor chemicals or the ingredients used to manufacture fentanyl pills.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The manufacturers ship the precursors to drug labs in Mexico run by the cartels, the two most prominent cartels being the Sinaloa and Jalisco.
--:-- Tim Pierce: From there, cartels use any number of smuggling routes to get their drugs into the U.S., from secret compartments and vehicles to backpacking.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In 2019, the U.S. Coast Guard stopped a 40-foot-long submarine that was carrying 12,000 pounds of cocaine.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So a very sophisticated operation if they're using things like submarines. It is.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That haul was worth about $165 million. But fentanyl is by far the most cost-efficient because it's so addictive yet so cheap to make.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Here's Milgram again talking about the kind of money involved in the Lynch investigation.
--:-- [Audio clip of DEA Administrator Anne Milgram]
--:-- DEA Administrator Anne Milgram: Together, these individuals sent more than one million fentanyl pills over the course of a year into the Washington, D.C. area. A dealer in Los Angeles pays 30 cents wholesale for one pill and sells it for $3 wholesale to someone in Washington, D.C., who then sells it to Diamond Lynch for $30 a pill.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The criminals are making so much money off of each sale that they don't care if they kill Americans in the process.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Since authorities at this point are pretty well aware of this supply chain, what's being done to intercept these shipments?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, each division of law enforcement typically has a unit or operation focused on organized illegal drugs.
--:-- Tim Pierce: But because the source of drugs is outside the U.S., there's only so much law enforcement can do.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Biden administration has spoken with both Mexico and China about finding a solution to part of the supply chain in their territories.
--:-- Tim Pierce: There has been some headway with Mexico, but you can't have a discussion on the drug trade without also mentioning illegal immigration, which has skyrocketed at the southwest border in the past several years.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The cartels control much of the border on the Mexican side, and they make money off human trafficking as well as the drug trade.
--:-- Tim Pierce: As for China, so far it has been unwilling to crack down on the manufacturers within its own borders.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In the meantime, illegal drugs are killing over 100,000 Americans every year.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Right, a real crisis.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Tim, thanks so much for joining us.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce, and this has been a Sunday edition of Morning Wire. Thank you.
