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Two Agencies to Fight Online Narcotics Sales

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Two federal agencies, the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration, have formed a special task force to crack down on the growing tide of illicit sales of narcotics on the Internet.

And for the first time, regulators are hinting that those who order the drugs may face prosecution. "It's illegal to import narcotics," Mark B. McClellan, the F.D.A. commissioner, said in an interview. "We do have steps in place to intercept such products and to take further legal action."

The task force, called Operation Gray Lord, will include officials from the Justice Department, some local law enforcement agencies and perhaps even top law enforcement officers from Canada because much of the trade originates there. Task force members intend to pursue the purveyors of prescription narcotics aggressively, but they acknowledge the difficulty of the task.

Many of the sites are based in countries where the sales are legal, and officials have few hopes that they will be able to intercept every package sent through the mail. Many of the packages bear fake customs certifications, making them especially difficult to track.

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