DEA Deep Dive: San Antonio’s Pioneering Crypto-Fentanyl Takedown

San Antonio – More than a decade ago, a landmark case in San Antonio, TX, changed the way DEA agents within the San Antonio Field Division confronted the complexities of cryptocurrency-fueled drug trafficking on the dark web.  

DEA San Antonio’s investigation into Alaa Mohammed Allawi, also known as the “Fentanyl King”, provided agents and analysists a new challenge: unravel intricate fentanyl cases tied to sophisticated digital currency transactions.  

Today, Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs) commonly use cryptocurrency to conceal billions of dollars in illicit drug proceeds, which leads to violence and devastation in American communities.

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DEA San Antonio Cryptocurrency Case

April 17, 2026

In 2019, 30-year-old Alaa Mohammed Allawi, otherwise known as the “Fentanyl King”, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for distributing approximately 245 kilograms of fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine, oxycodone, and Xanax. Through the use of the dark web and cryptocurrency, DEA was able to uncover that Allawi’s distribution network, which sold counterfeit oxycodone pills, resulted in the overdose death of a U.S. Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and serious injured to residents of Grand Forks, North Dakota.

In addition to the prison term, Alwai was ordered by federal court to forfeit his San Antonio residence, valued at approximately $270K; five firearms including an AR style assault rifle; approximately $28K in U.S. currency; more than $21K in cryptocurrency, an assortment of jewelry valued at over $31K, four (4) vehicles including a 2013 Maserati Gran Turismo, and any rights to his "DRNK coffee + tea" franchise in California.

According to records, Allawi arrived in the U.S. from Iraq in 2012 on an S-1 visa granted based on his service as an interpreter for the Department of Defense while in Iraq.

This investigation began in 2015, when the San Antonio Police Department and the University of Texas at San Antonio Police Department began looking into an uptick of prescription pills on the University of Texas-San Antonio Campus (UTSA). 

Allawi was subsequently identified as the manufacturer and supplier of the pills. Allawi admitted to purchasing fentanyl and industrial-sized pill presses from the dark net website called AlphaBay in 2015. He also used AlphaBay to sell fentanyl and methamphetamine pills, according to his plea deal. Allawi accepted seven different cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, as payment for the pills. AlphaBay has been subsequently shut down by law enforcement.

The comprehensive, first-of-its-kind investigation for DEA San Antonio was spearheaded, at the time, by Group Supervisor Miguel Madrigal.  Madrigal now serves as the DEA San Antonio Special Agent in Charge, which oversees portions of South Texas.

“ We were able to unravel a huge infrastructure of fentanyl distributors who were using cryptocurrencies. Luckily, we had a very young task force officer who understood that world and helped us introduce our tactics from previous investigations”.

On June 21, 2019, Allawi pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl resulting in death and serious bodily injury, one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. He is 6 years into serving his 30-year prison sentence.