Fourth Defendant in the Drugpharmacist Case Pleads Guilty
According to court documents, Adan Sepulveda, 30, and his accomplices Jerrell Eugene Anderson, Christopher Carion Van Holton, Kenneth Lashawn Hadley, and Jackie Walter Burns conspired in the distribution of large quantities of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine. The quintet distributed the drugs through the "Drugpharmacist" and "RickandMortyShop" vendor profiles on the now-defunct marketplaces, Dream and Wall Street.
The investigators launched investigations into the operations of Drugpharmacist in June 2018. The investigations stemmed from the interception of a methamphetamine package addressed to an individual who told the investigators that he had purchased the drugs from Drugpharmacist.
The investigators established that Drugpharmacist's drug packages were in Tyvek Envelopes envelopes and their postage was paid for using an Easypost account. Inside the envelope, was a thank you note and drugs hidden in a stuffed animal. The USPS identified hundreds of drug packages destined for addresses across the US.
Following multiple undercover purchases and surveillance, the investigators established that Sepulveda and his co-conspirators operated out of rental properties. In the properties, the defendants prepared the drug packages according to orders received from Drugpharmacist and RickandMortyShop. They would then drop off the packages at post offices throughout Los Angeles for mailing to their buyers.
Surveillance footage at the post offices led to the identification of Sepulveda and his accomplices as the mailers of the drug packages. Sepulveda was linked to the mailing of a drug package whose contents the investigators believe resulted in the overdose death of one of Drugpharmacist's repeat customers.
The investigators arrested Sepulveda, Burns, and Anderson on March 14, 2019, after they left one of their stash houses. A search of the apartment resulted in the seizure of 128 grams of methamphetamine in a sealed bag, 25 grams of cocaine in a plastic container, and multiple packages of heroin. The investigators also seized a Glock pistol, a laptop, packaging and mailing materials, and stuffed animals.
The defendants were charged with multiple drug trafficking offenses in a nine-count indictment filed in March 2019.
Sepulveda's co-defendants, Hadly, Van Holton, and Burns pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
In January 2022, Van Holton was sentenced to two years and four months in prison. The sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release.
Hadly was sentenced to time served and three years of supervised release in April 2022.
Burns avoided prison and was sentenced to a probation term of three years in June 2022.
On September 21, 2023, Sepulveda pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. His sentencing hearing will take place on November 30.
Comments (15)
coder4202023-09-25d0c78ae4
Darknet is secure if you’re not a complete dumbass or egotistical nigger with poor OPSEC, sending drugs in stuffed animals. Come on, it’s not 1980. Vendors need to up their fucking game
JoeMamma2023-09-267343f09e
Good ole fashioned detective work. Make undercover buy from vendor and profile package. Then just wait for vendor to fuckup by shipping profiled pack at post office where they are ID'd by Clearview facial recognition software that is installed in every post office. Voila.
EDU7772023-09-26cd7aed0b
Buyer gets caught for xyz reason bad address false name po box etc. snitches on seller. feds pull footage from sender location and attempt to catch shipper on camera. shipper has poor opsec and reveals license plate/identity somehow etc. gets traced for many transactions and gets roped on a conspiracy charge.
AmericanGodz2023-10-101ba7bd8e
package was seized customer told them how it got it. The got lazy and hit the same post office all the feds did was watch for them to drop. Its the little things that get vendors busted
streetoutlaw2023-09-24a4771336
"The investigators launched investigations into the operations of Drugpharmacist in June 2018. The investigations stemmed from the interception of a methamphetamine package addressed to an individual who told the investigators that he had purchased the drugs from Drugpharmacist." A customer got popped and told it all!!! That's how!!!
JoeMamma2023-09-278a641584
Wrong dear watson you victorian era dipshit. The customer would have no idea the real life identity of the vendor he buys from on a darknet market. That's the point of vending on a darknet market via TOR.
golly2023-09-30dd59df8c
> the interception of a methamphetamine package addressed to an individual who told the investigators that he had purchased the drugs from Drugpharmacist." The feds use this tactic of scaring one of the customers into admitting that they ordered from their target vendor. Now they have a witness to establish that these drug packages came from the vendor they are targeting and the evidence siezed (mailed drugs) are tied to the vendor. They build a stronger case off that evidence, but this is not how they IDENTIFIED the vendor. > They would then drop off the packages at post offices throughout Los Angeles for mailing to their buyers. Surveillance footage at the post offices led to the identification of Sepulveda and his accomplices as the mailers of the drug packages. Once again absolute dumbasses identified because they think they need to drop mail AT post offices.
Stackv2023-10-012c4f3dfb
Partly true JoeManma, but you gotta realize by Identifying the package as one from a darket vendor tells LE that the package isn't an isolated incident. It tells LE how to specifically create a case from the vendor with video evidence... So although you are true, obviously without the buyer leaking all the details about the package vendor would have lasted... Longer anyway.
J Pinkman2023-10-09f6a6f5d8
@Stackv just after that paragraph they begin the next one "Following multiple undercover purchases and surveillance" so they don't really need the customer, they could've just started buying off DP and eliminated the sniveling tattletale of a customer. I wonder though, if having that said customer somehow bolsters their case in some way. Like why even do that if it doesn't really do much, and a few controlled buys will tell them what they ultimately found out anyway. And cheers to @ golly for stating an obvious faux pas that we see busted vendors do over and over again. At least read about these busts on DNL FFS! They just blindly go about it their own way thinking they'll never get caught. If I were a vendor and read about these most recent busts, like Safeserve, I'd close shop and open a new account with a different sounding profile and then to that again every 2 months, before they can get the noose around my neck! They did pretty good on jail time. Anyone else notice that?
chapo laredo2023-10-141267f19a
Yea that wasn't shit for time..conspiracy and drug ring usually = 15-20
Remember Jeep2023-10-23847cd705
They don't state how they came to find the meth in the mailed package. That's suspect. As a few have surmised here, they probably had their guy already, they just had to build a case around it to make it look like it was good old fashioned police work. In reality they probably found out about the crime through illeagal means like cell phone spying. Eavesdropping on everything from text messages and emails to phone calls.
JTR12023-09-23ea494662
How are all these arrests being made on a platform that is supposed to be secure?