A man from Santa Clarita was found guilty and given an eight-year sentence in federal prison for being the head of a drug trafficking organization that used the darknet to spread drugs throughout the country. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, United States District Judge George H. Wu sentenced Jerrell Eugene Anderson, 34, the brains behind the “Drugpharmacist” organization, who traded in heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine.
Online aliases such as “Drugpharmacist” and “rickandmortyshop” were used by Anderson’s darknet operation to distribute and sell drugs via hidden websites like Dream and Wall Street Market. Anderson and his associates smuggled the heroin, sometimes deftly wrapped in teddy animals, from San Fernando Valley stash houses between July 2018 and March 2019, according to a news statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office Central District of California. These packages made their way to post offices in the Los Angeles region, where they were intended for unaware consumers spread out across the country.
After a cooperative investigation that took place across multiple states and involved the FBI, the US Postal Inspection Service, and multiple local police agencies, this complex plan came crumbling down. The trafficking of heroin to a victim in Knoxville, Tennessee, in August 2018—whose death was subsequently linked to the drug—was one of the occurrences connected to Anderson’s network. According to Public Information Officer Ciaran McEvoy, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, reported that Anderson was found in a Glendale apartment with a variety of drugs that were ready for distribution. Additionally, he was found in possession of a semiautomatic pistol, which is a damning accessory to his drug trafficking activities.
Anderson’s associates, including Christopher Canion Von Holton, Kenneth Lashawn Hadley, Adan Sepulveda, and Jackie Walter Burns, also entered guilty pleas in the case; they are now facing punishment. The case highlights the resolute effort of law enforcement to combat online drug trafficking, spearheaded by Assistant United States Attorneys Khaldoun Shobaki and Lauren Restrepo from the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section. These individuals, who range in age from 26 to 37, have all experienced effects that mirror Anderson’s assessment and are now forced to deal with the fallout from their involvement in this covert operation.
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