Sept. 23, $36,000

Monday another $40,000 will leave Cyprus. All transfers will arrive in Fleet/USA. Thanks a lot for your great business.

CENTER CITY

Beneath a red Mexican tapestry, federal prosecutor Barbara Cohan spread a DEA chart across her red desk. The diagram was dotted with mug shots, lines drawn to suggest associations.

The Australian Shackleton and his spiked, peroxided hair loomed large in the center. Web operators in five continents formed an outer ring around him. Off in a corner, with suspected couriers, was Akhil Bansal.

Barb let out a laugh. Taken together, the mug shots reminded her of the characters from the bar scene in Star Wars.

Barb had worked drug cases for 24 years, but found these suspects particularly greedy. They dispensed prescription drugs like candy. Such audacity made her smile. Her job was much more fun, she often said, when the defendants were evil.

Barb's colleague and friend, prosecutor Wendy Kelly, was on her way to Australia to join two DEA agents. With Kelly gone, Barb focused on the Indians living in Philadelphia.

Akhil was not Mr. Big, she believed, but he would do. To indict the case in federal court here, she needed a local defendant. And prosecutors preferred a dealer to a user.

Surveillance had trailed Akhil to a suspected Queens, N.Y., stash house, then to another home, where agents had videotaped Indians loading hundreds of packages onto a UPS truck.

Akhil's role wasn't clear. Yet for a young guy in grad school, his bank accounts seemed flush. When Barb subpoenaed his records, she discovered $100,000 in certificates of deposit and a free student checking account with $138,797.23.

Large wire transfers from abroad - $35,000, $60,000, $100,000 - were routine. He wrote big checks - $3,000, $25,000, $50,000 - to cash and to a Queens company.

The money transfers weren't illegal, per se. And agents hadn't witnessed Akhil commit any crimes. But there was enough suspicious activity to ask a magistrate to authorize a search of his e-mail. When they got approval, the feds sent a search warrant to hotmail.com, the company that hosted Akhil's account.

KING OF PRUSSIA, PA.

Douglas, a husky 19-year-old computer salesman, logged on to ourprescriptionsforless.com. He lived with his mother in a small brick house within sight of the Bloomingdale's arch at the mall.

He clicked on alprazolam, a generic sedative. Douglas liked the way it cut his anxiety in social situations.

By ordering online, Douglas avoided an embarrassing doctor visit or alerting his mother, who still carried his health insurance and might see the bill.

Douglas clicked on quantity and chose 110 tablets, more than a month's supply - more than he thought he would need - just in case. These Internet pharmacies were shady, clearly illegal, and Douglas wasn't sure how long they would remain in business.

He entered his address. He liked that the pills were shipped from a domestic depot. Why risk involving U.S. Customs?