Dying for Death –
Oct. 16, 2019 – A year and a half earlier, 2,000 miles southeast of Grand Forks, a young Drug Enforcement Administration agent in West Palm Beach, Fla., named Mike Buemi was deep into his own investigation. The target was a drug ring that had been importing a product unrelated to fentanyl called Molly. In D.E.A. parlance, Molly was known as a new psychoactive substance, or N.P.S., a catchall term meant to encompass the growing class of mostly synthetic drugs that looked and acted like traditional drugs but that had been chemically modified just enough to avoid scrutiny from law enforcement. Buemi was in his early 30s, with a square jaw, close-cropped brown hair and an easy smile. He started at the D.E.A. in 2012, after college R.O.T.C. and seven years as an Army officer, including a tour in Afghanistan.
