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In an odd series of once independently reported events, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida announced that a fourth vendor has been charged in a string of related darknet cases. Upon first glance, the vendors appeared to have little in common, aside from appearing in the same press release. And really, even after taking a closer look, the similarities seem insignificant.

However, we know US law enforcement is in a heat-seeking mode when it comes to opioids. And Florida is, according to law enforcement, seeing a significant amount of a-PVP. All four vendors sold opioids or opiates. Three out of the four sold MDMA and a-PVP.

One of the vendors, OwlCity, routinely appeared in DeepDotWeb news articles. Chrissano Leslie, also known as the Alphabay vendor “OwlCity,” sold fentanyl to a buyer that happened to be an undercover federal agent. At the time of the arrest on July 26, the only information available to us came from a handful of local news websites. (The government kept court documentation offline – i.e., not on PACER until after I wrote the initial article.) The DEA raided his house and found, in addition to the heroin and fentanyl, cocaine, MDMA, and a-PVP.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and aggravated identity theft. (Later reduced to access device fraud.)

“In separate but related cases,” the announcement explained, the DEA busted a 50-year-old vendor named Robert Kenneth Decker, a/k/a “Digitalpossi2014,” and one we just wrote about, a 32-year-old named Joshua J. Kelly, a/k/a “ustous.” both sold similar products. Fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, alpha-PVP, and oxycodone. Decker pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He received 140 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

The Criminal Complaint in the Decker case mentions both Reddit (and Coinbase) as parts of the investigation:

“DEA agents reviewed blog posts on reddit. Com-a social media and news aggregation, web content rating and discussion website and identified a reddit. com user with the usemame “DIGITALPOSSI2014”. DIGITALPOSSI2014 posted various comments on reddit. com forums, indicating his sale of controlled substances on various dark web markets.”

Kelly, or ustous, famed for creating his pill mixes and blends that he seemed safe for resale, just recently landed in police custody after buying oxycodone pressing materials. He sold everything from the drugs themselves to extreme-sounding mixtures. Most of which contained fentanyl, some contained fentanyl, cocaine, a benzodiazepine, and possibly others. The DEA purchased, on “numerous darknet marketplaces,” alpha-PVP and MDMA as well.

The DEA charged him with conspiracy to distribute and conspiracy to launder money. Kelly owned a local smoke shop where he openly discussed his trade. He used the bank account of his company in order to circumvent unexplained tax and financial records with respect to his personal bank account.

In September 2015, law enforcement arrested Kevin C. Fusco, a/k/a “Polira” on Alphabay. He, according to court documents, sold MDMA and, as the story goes, sold it to undercover law enforcement officers. An indictment charged him with one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substrate and two counts of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Polira, along with his case(s), maintains a ghost-like status. The investigation involving him is likely still underway.

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