CHANTILLY, VA.

An investigation this significant, this cutting-edge, needed branding, a new name.

DEA couldn't keep calling it Operation Carlito's Way, the eponymous name Carlos Aquino had picked, half in jest, months ago.

Carlito's Way was an Al Pacino movie, for heaven's sake. People would be confused.

Renaming the case fell to DEA's Special Operations Division, which coordinated international cases from an unmarked suburban office building near Dulles International Airport.

To make a splash, the new name needed to pop. The agency hoped the case would scare other dealers, make consumers think twice about buying knockoff drugs online.

The task fell to DEA's Terence Reilly, who began to brainstorm. He sent three dozen possible names to his boss, Mary Irene Cooper:

Firewall, Cyber Force, Cyborg, Cyber Sleuth, E-Force, Pill Matrix... Cyber Pharm, Cyber Chase, Cyber Narc, Net Narc... Mouse Click, Web Sentinel, Web Sentry, Web Reaper, Net Death...

Cooper chose Cyber Chase.

That evening at Reilly's home, a title in his video library caught his eye - a movie called The Cyber Chase. He flinched.

The star was Scooby-Doo.

AGRA

Brij didn't cut off deadbeat clients, but he did harden his tone. In an e-mail to the Florida-based operator of myemeds.com, he wrote:

The government of India has imposed restrictions on many medicines and declared them Narcotic Substance. There are huge penalties and even imprisonment as a punishment if someone is found selling them without a prescription. Till now we were supplying you with the stock we maintain as a buffer but it is now coming to a near end...

We have no choice but to pay bribes and premiums to get our medicines. This is possible (and in our benefit) only because of some helpful corrupt people in India.

ROXBOROUGH

Snug in his three-bedroom apartment, with its familiar curry, cardamom and garam masala aromas, Akhil startled his roommate with the news:

In three months, he planned to quit his father's business.

What began as an easy chore now threatened to ruin his plan to run hospitals in India.