A nationwide undercover law enforcement probe of illegal activity on the dark web has snared two cousins from northern Vermont on online drug-dealing charges.
The yearlong investigation involving a host of federal agencies targeted 65 people and led to the arrest and prosecution of more than 35 dark web vendors, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in a release Wednesday.
Across the country, the investigation resulted in federal authorities seizing large quantities of illegal drugs, 100 firearms, gold bars, more than $20 million in cryptocurrency, and even a grenade launcher.
Sam Bent, 32, and his cousin, Djeneba Bent, 26, both of St. Johnsbury, and formerly of East Burke, were the two Vermont men caught in the law enforcement dark web crackdown.
The pair are named in an indictment returned in federal court in Vermont charging them with conspiracy to distribute LSD, MDMA, also known as ecstasy, as well as cocaine and marijuana.
The indictment alleges that the conspiracy involved establishing accounts on dark web marketplaces, setting up online identifies, accepting bitcoin in exchange for online drug sales, and mailing illegal drugs to post offices in northern Vermont and New Hampshire.
In addition, the indictment charges Sam Bent with four counts of money laundering involving three different exchanges of bitcoin drug distribution proceeds for U.S. currency.
According to the indictment, Sam Bent purchased LSD, MDMA, marijuana, and cocaine online in order to repackage and resell the illicit goods, and Djeneba Bent acquired U.S. Postal Service shipping envelopes and boxes for use in distributing the drugs.
Court records do not reveal the amounts of the drugs involved.
Djeneba Bent also mailed parcels containing the drugs from post offices in northeastern Vermont and northwestern New Hampshire, the indictment alleges.
While the release announcing the arrests came out Wednesday, the two men were charged in May, and have already been arraigned on the offenses against them. Both have pleaded not guilty and have been released on conditions.
Their attorneys could not immediately be reached Wednesday afternoon for comment.
U.S. Attorney for Vermont Christina Nolan, the top federal prosecutor in the state, said Wednesday that criminal activity on the dark web is a growing problem across the country, and in Vermont.
“Certainly, it’s here,” Nolan said. “I think the biggest challenge that it poses for us here is that individuals are purchasing drugs wholesale, particularly fentanyl, which they are ordering on the dark web, and it’s being shipped directly to Vermont.”
Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid. The number of deaths linked to fentanyl in Vermont increased from 51 in 2016 to 68 in 2017, according to Vermont Department of Health statistics.
The dark web is a term referring to parts of the internet accessed through encrypted means, according to Phil Sussman, president of Norwich University Applied Research Institutes.
“What the dark web gives users is some level of anonymity or protection,” he said Wednesday.
The anonymity associated with the dark web has led to marketplaces of illegal activities to form there, from drug traffickers, to those seeking to exchange stolen credit card information, to others involved in the trading of child pornography, he said.
Sussman estimated that only a small percentage of the internet users, in the low single digits, ever go on the dark web.
The dark web also has non-nefarious purposes, Sussman said, such as allowing people in certain countries an anonymous outlet to speak out against human right abuses.
He said that part of the problem in enforcement of illegal activities on the dark web is the amount of effort and resources that can go into investigating one case due to information traveling through a maze of encryption and likely crossing many jurisdictions and borders..
Nolan said Wednesday that federal authorities are getting “smarter and smarter” about the techniques they use to investigate cases on the dark web.
Sussman, however, cautioned that just as investigators are developing those new techniques to probe crime on the dark web, those engaged in illicit activities are working just as hard to come up with ways to defeat those enforcement measures.
According to the statement Wednesday from the U.S. Department of Justice, the operation was the first nationwide undercover action to target the selling and purchasing of illicit items on the darknet.
Federal Homeland Security agents posed as a money launderers on dark web market sites, exchanging U.S. currency for virtual currency.
According to the release, the operation led to seizing of the following:
• 333 bottles of liquid synthetic opioids, over 100,000 tramadol pills, 100 grams of fentanyl, more than 24 kilograms of Xanax, and additional seizures of oxycodone, MDMA, cocaine, LSD, marijuana, and a psychedelic mushroom grow;
• More than 100 firearms, including handguns, assault rifles, and a grenade launcher;
• Five vehicles that were purchased with illicit proceeds and/or used to facilitate criminal activity;
• More than $3.6 million in U.S. currency and gold bars;
• Nearly 2,000 bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, with an approximate value of more than $20 million.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont cousins caught in nationwide dark web drag net.