LOS ANGELES – As a part of a global effort to disrupt narcotics trafficking on the darknet, particular agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and members of the Los Angeles Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement (JCODE) Task Force introduced expenses Tuesday in opposition to a key member of a Southern California drug trafficking group who allegedly distributed methamphetamine and other illicit narcotics to 1000’s of consumers in at the very least 35 states and numerous nations world wide.
Andres Bermudez, 37, of Palmdale, allegedly provided methamphetamine to the “Stealthgod” crew, was named in a criminal complaint filed Sept. 18. An affidavit in this case outlines how Bermudez allegedly provided methamphetamine to the “Stealthgod” drug trafficking group and details negotiations involving transactions of 30 pounds and forty pounds of methamphetamine. Bermudez is at present a fugitive sought by federal authorities.
Earlier this 12 months, five other members of the narcotics ring had been arrested on federal costs, and authorities made substantial seizures of narcotics and cryptocurrency.
This case is part of Operation DisrupTor, which builds on the success of prior actions focusing on darknet vendors, including the takedown of Wall Street Market, which was one of many world’s largest darkish web marketplaces. Following the Wall Street Market takedown in May 2019 and the filing of federal costs in Los Angeles towards the administrators, legislation enforcement in the United States and Europe obtained intelligence that allowed them to identify darknet drug traffickers.
“These online black market web sites use a variety of applied sciences, together with the Tor community and different encryption technologies, to make sure that communications and transactions are shielded from interception and monitoring,” based on courtroom documents filed final week in Los Angeles. “A famous darkish net market, Wall Street Market, operated similar to professional industrial web sites reminiscent of Amazon and eBay, however offered illicit items and services” in alternate for digital currencies, reminiscent of Bitcoin.
“Through the outstanding efforts of the JCODE Task Force, we’ve been able to unmask these hiding on the darknet, bringing to justice a wide array of criminals, including those working online marketplaces, laundering cryptocurrency, and spreading medication all over the world,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna. “My prosecutors and their JCODE companions will proceed to rein in illegal dark net activities by disrupting other traffickers and those that assist them access their illicit cryptocurrency.”
“American citizens endure the unlucky penalties of darkweb marketplaces the place criminals get wealthy by exploiting those suffering through an opioid epidemic whereas evading regulation enforcement scrutiny,” stated John F. Bennett, appearing assistant director in control of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office. “This case and others ought to ship a message that legislation enforcement has infiltrated the perceived anonymity of the darkweb and possesses the instruments to establish and hold accountable people and groups chargeable for unlawful trafficking and the devastating toll it takes on humanity within the United States and abroad.”
“Members of the Stealthgod crew have found that not even the darknet may shield their criminal activities from the watchful eyes of Postal Inspectors and our regulation enforcement companions,” stated Patricia Armstrong, inspector in command of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Los Angeles. “The alleged drug traffickers miscalculated when they selected to use the U.S. mail to additional their crimes, and they will face a very severe worth.”
During Operation DisrupTor, the Los Angeles JCODE Task Force successfully dismantled a drug trafficking organization that used online monikers resembling “Stealthgod” to sell methamphetamine and MDMA on multiple darknet marketplaces, including Wall Street Market. Investigators have linked the crew to more than 18,000 illicit drug sales to prospects around the world. During an operation earlier this 12 months, members of JCODE executed search warrants that led to the seizure of more than 60 parcels containing narcotics that had been ready to be shipped to greater than 35 states across the nation.
Members of JCODE arrested five defendants allegedly at the middle of the “Stealthgod” group and seized roughly 120 pounds of methamphetamine, seven kilograms of MDMA (“ecstasy”) and five firearms (photograph of seizure) throughout law enforcement actions in the city of Los Angeles in February,. The 5 defendants arrested on federal costs are:
– Teresa McGrath, 34, of Sunland-Tujunga, who allegedly delivered dozens of narcotics-laden packages to a publish office in Sunland;- Rane Melkom, 35, of Sunland-Tujunga, who shared a residence with McGrath the place authorities seized greater than 50 pounds of methamphetamine, almost 15 pounds of MDMA, approximately 30,000 Adderall pills, money, and three loaded handguns;- Mark Chavez, 41, of downtown Los Angeles, whose bedroom yielded almost forty pounds of methamphetamine and two handguns throughout a search in February;- Matthew Ick, 51, of downtown Los Angeles, who is linked in court docket papers to a narcotics shipment to the organization; and- Thomas Olayvar, 43, of downtown Los Angeles, who allegedly was concerned within the shipment of narcotics through the United States Postal Service.
McGrath has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and MDMA, possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, and cryptocurrency money laundering, admitting that over the course of about six months she acquired roughly $161,916 in Bitcoin and helped disburse this money to her co-conspirators.
Chavez has pleaded responsible to conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and MDMA, in addition to possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking.
McGrath and Chavez are scheduled to be sentenced subsequent year, when each will face a necessary minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison.
Melkom, Ick, and Olayvar face numerous narcotics costs alleged in criminal informations. These defendants are presently scheduled to go on trial subsequent 12 months.
The cases stemming from the investigation into the “Stealthgod” organization are being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California’s International Narcotics, Money Laundering and Racketeering Section.
Because the investigation into the “Stealthgod” crew continued, the Los Angeles JCODE Task Force made extra seizures, together with $1.6 million in cryptocurrency, three firearms, eleven pounds of methamphetamine and 14 pounds of pills pressed with methamphetamine.
Along with the Operation DistrupTor circumstances associated to “Stealthgod,” federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have filed cases in opposition to other alleged darknet narcotics traffickers and people who help them convert bitcoin into fiat currency. For instance:
– Kais Mohammad, 36, of Yorba Linda, is scheduled to plead guilty on Thursday to federal fees stemming from the operation of 17 Bitcoin kiosks throughout Southern California. In his plea agreement, Mohammad admitted that he knew that at the least one in every of his purchasers was engaged in illicit activity on the dark net.
Earlier this yr, three folks linked to the net moniker “Aeirla” were sentenced to federal prison for conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine to prospects who negotiated transactions on the darkweb. Those defendants are:
– Anh Pham, 49, of Hawaiian Gardens, was sentenced to 80 months in federal prison;- Joseph Michael Gifford, 43, of La Crescenta, was sentenced to a few years’ imprisonment; and- Carlos Miguel Gallardo, 60, Hawaiian Gardens, was sentenced to serve 18 months in federal prison.
Pham offered pound portions of methamphetamine on the darknet, while Gifford and Gallardo packaged them – in toys, a beach ball, and containers of Christmas playing cards and chocolates – and shipped them to prospects nationwide.
Five defendants are scheduled to be tried in October 2021 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on numerous narcotics trafficking charges that allege they used the monikers “Drugpharmacist” and “RickandMortyShop” to sell cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and crack cocaine on Wall Street Market and another darknet market referred to as Dream. Members of the conspiracy allegedly shipped narcotics in small vials concealed inside stuffed animals. The defendants scheduled to go on trial are: Jerrell Eugene Anderson, 30, of Inglewood; Christopher Canion Van Holton, 33, of Valencia; Adan Sepulveda, 28, of Lancaster; Kenneth Lashawn Hadley, 33, of Lancaster; and Jackie Walter Burns, 22, of Lancaster. Anderson and Sepulveda face a charge of distribution of heroin resulting in dying in relation to a shipment of heroin to a buyer in Knoxville, Tennessee, who suffered a fatal overdose.
– Kunal Kalra, 26, of Westwood, was sentenced in March to 18 months in federal prison after pleading responsible to federal narcotics and anti-cash laundering expenses related to his unlicensed cash transmitting enterprise that he used to trade virtual forex for money for darknet vendors. This matter was the primary federal case in the nation charging an unlicensed money remitting enterprise that used a Bitcoin kiosk.- A father and his son who distributed methamphetamine on the darknet using monikers such “Quartersandup,” “Tenderwoodcock,” “Colsandersdream,” and “colonelsanders” had been sentenced to federal prison final year. William Glarner III, 65, of Huntington Beach, was convicted at trial and sentenced to 15 years. His son, William Glarner IV, 35, of Irvine, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years.- Tyler Reeves, a 30-year-old Irvine man who offered narcotics on Wall Street Market under the moniker “Platinum45,” was sentenced last year to 10 years in federal prison.
The “Stealthgod” circumstances are the result of an investigation by the Los Angeles JCODE Task Force, which is comprised of a number of federal businesses, together with HSI, the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
The Drug Enforcement Administration supplied substantial support throughout the “Stealthgod” investigation. The Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department also participated within the “Stealthgod” investigation. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California also offered help.
The darknet investigations discussed on this announcement had been prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California and carried out with the support of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF).
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