Several Arizona residents in prison
Several Arizona residents were sentenced to prison for using the dark web to distribute drugs throughout the United States.
Between 2015 and 2017 U.S. Attorneys said four defendants used the vendor name ” Iceman21 ” to advertise and sell heroin, meth, and cocaine. These defendants were Kevin Dean McCoy, 28 of Tucson, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison, Silvester Ruelas , 50 of Peoria, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and Amber Worrell who was sentenced 10 years of prison, and Peggy Gomez who was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
Different dark web marketplaces were used such as AlphaBay , Hansa , and Dream Market. Upon investigation, it was revealed that the defendants used the U.S. Postal Service to ship the drugs from Phoenix to different locations across The United States.
The United States Postal Inspection Service seized parcels with drugs that were going to Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
Attorneys said the defendants were said to use encrypted technology, sold crypto currency through peer to peer exchangers, and created bank accounts for non-existent businesses in order to conceal and launder proceeds from their drug distributions.
During the investigation, law enforcement said they seized a Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl XL ring, gold, silver, and platinum bars, and firearms.
“Our office is committed to working closely with our agency partners to aggressively investigate and prosecute drug traffickers,” said U.S. Attorney Michael Bailey. “Hiding behind computer keyboards and using our mail system to move their drugs will not shield them from lengthy prison sentences.”
The investigation was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations, and the United States Postal Inspection Service, with assistance from Scottsdale, Mesa, and Peoria Police Departments.
