Federal officials in Sacramento, California recently announced a new round of indictments on suspects involved in trafficking opioids through the dark web.
The charges were submitted in two ongoing cases following a nationwide crackdown on opioid sales.
The indictments include a trio of Arizona suspects who are charged with selling methamphetamine and heroin online, as well as two defendants from Rancho Cordova and Elk Grove who were allegedly running an illegal pharmacy operation.
Eastern District of California U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott stated in a news conference that other federal agencies, including Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, joined California law enforcement to crack down on these large-scale drug operations.
Indictments in Two Cases
Following the shutdown of AlphaBay Market back in 2017, the FBI's J-CODE (Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement) unit has been tasked with investigating and apprehending darknet drug dealers in droves.
After seizing AlphaBay's servers, law enforcement was able to track down sellers and buyers easily.
Carrie Alaine Markis, 46, was among them. Markis is a registered nurse from Rancho Cordova who was arrested in January for operating the darknet handle "Farmacy41."
The vendor had a presence on several dark web marketplaces including AlphaBay Market, Silk Road 2.0 and Pandora Market.
Markis allegedly sold thousands of prescription opioid pills to customers of the course of years.
Along with her criminal complaint, 52-year-old Andrea Michelle Jordan (also known as "Jill") was also indicted by a federal grand jury.
Jordan is accused of buying pills from legitimate prescription holders and providing the drugs to Markis.
The agents who arrested Markis recovered $1.8 million in cryptocurrencies stored in her cryptocurrency wallet, along with $234,000 in cash.
The federal government will attempt to acquire these assets through forfeiture proceedings.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California also said that since September or 2018, these investigations led to four indictments, 14 arrests, nearly $2 million seized in Bitcoin, $423,000 seized in cash and the seizure of six firearms.
The efforts of the Northern California Illicit Digital Economy Task Force, which was established in 2018, also included indictments for three suspects from Chandler, Arizona-45-year-old Jason Keith Arnold, 49-year-old David Lee White and 30-year-old Alicia Marie McCoy.
Federal authorities say the trio sold several orders of heroin to undercover agents last year.
According to officials, the suspects allegedly sold heroin and methamphetamine on Dream Market using the accounts "SicknessVersion2" and "TheSickness."
If they're found guilty, Arnold, White and McCoy face a maximum sentence of life in prison, plus a $10 million fine
Markis could be given a maximum sentence of 20 years and a $1 million fine if she's found guilty.