On Thursday, a New Mexico drug dealer pleads guilty to trafficking several narcotics on the dark web.
In exchange, Gilberto Melgarejo, 27, received cryptocurrency, the New York Post reported.
Melgarejo pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn federal court. He admitted to selling methamphetamines, fentanyl, heroin, LSD, and MDMA on the dark web under the name “THEQUEENSHIVE,” the US Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York claimed.
His cohort Brooke Gray, 23, also admitted to the same charge of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute illegal drugs, authorities added.
Melgarejo and Brooke were arrested in New Mexico two years ago after authorities discovered the duo used the dark web marketplace “Wall Street Market” and “Empire Market” to sell their illegal narcotics under the name “THEQUEENSHIVE,” prosecutors said.
Federal prosecutors allege they then shipped the drugs from gas station mailboxes in the Albuquerque area to customers that sent them bitcoin payments through encrypted services nearly 100 times.
“This investigation proves that there is no place to hide in the dark web when it comes to law enforcement’s efforts to save lives,” DEA Special Agent-in-Charge Ray Donovan said in a statement.
US Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis promised that her office would continue to “aggressively prosecute narcotics traffickers who contribute to the opioid epidemic and harm our communities.”
Melgarejo and Brooke face life in federal prison, according to prosecutors.
Ross Ulbricht, the man behind the notorious black-market website Silk Road, is behind bars serving a life sentence following his 2015 conviction for running the marketplace.
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