A Pennsylvania man whose dark web drug trafficking operation resulted in dozens of overdose deaths has been sentenced to life in federal prison.
In under two years, Henry Konah Koffie, 38, of Pennsylvania, fulfilled over 7,000 orders and distributed approximately 19.5 kilos of fentanyl through the “DNMKingpin” and “Narcoboss” vendor accounts on the now-defunct AlphaBay marketplace. Investigators linked Koffie’s drug trafficking operation to at least 30 overdose deaths and 27 non-fatal overdoses.
Law enforcement launched investigations into DNMKingpin on May 2, 2016, after a 19-year-old college student overdosed on fentanyl. The investigators questioned the student after she recovered and established that she had purchased the fentanyl from DNMKingpin on AlphaBay. DNMKingpin was banned from AlphaBay at the end of June that year.
On May 6, 2017, police in Portland responded to an overdose death. The investigators questioned the victim’s roommate and established that the victim had been purchasing Xanax and fentanyl through the dark web. The roommate also disclosed that they had been purchasing the fentanyl from Narcoboss on AlphaBay.
A review of Narcoboss’s profile revealed that the vendor sold “China White Synthetic Heroin Fentanyl Mix” for $40 a gram. Narcoboss and DNMKingpin had the same public key displayed on their profiles.
On May 29, 2017, the officers responded to yet another fatal overdose in Portland. The victim’s roommate told the investigators that the victim had been purchasing drugs online. A search of the victim’s room led to the discovery of a notebook with the victim’s AlphaBay credentials and a Bitcoin wallet. The investigators also searched the trash can and found a USPS priority mail envelope that had a return address in Philadelphia.
The investigators made several undercover purchases from Narcoboss. The drug packages they received had return addresses in Philadelphia. The drugs received by the investigators tested positive for furanyl fentanyl.
The investigators acquired information from DHS on imports made from China to Philadelphia. The investigators established that Koffie had received 14 shipments from China between April 2016 and May 2017. The packages had been shipped to Koffie by entities suspected of distributing controlled substances. In total Koffie received packages that weighed over 7 kilograms.
In June 2017 the investigators subpoenaed cryptocurrency exchanges for information on any accounts registered Koffie. Coinbase revealed that Koffie had an account on the exchange but it was closed after the exchange established that he had been receiving funds from AlphaBay.
Information acquired from Coinbase revealed that Koffie’s account had received approximately 289.79 and sent 51.98 bitcoin. He had sold 240.97 bitcoin and received over $127,200.
Some of the bitcoin sent from Koffie’s Coinbase account was used to pay for postage from an online postage company.
Information acquired from the postage company revealed that the account had paid for the postage used to mail the drugs linked to the two fatal overdoses in Portland. The account had also purchased postage for all the packages used to mail the drugs purchased from Narcoboss by the investigators.
A federal jury found Koffie guilty of two counts of distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death, one count of distribution of a controlled substance resulting in serious bodily injury, and five counts of distribution of a controlled substance, on March 7, 2023.
Koffie was sentenced to life in federal prison and three years of supervised release on December 11, 2023.
Koffie has ongoing cases in the Western District of Pennsylvania and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Federal juries in the districts charged him with four counts of distributing a controlled substance, distributing a controlled substance, and distributing a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a playground.