A Brooklyn man was arrested and charged for selling heroin and cocaine on the dark web in exchange for bitcoin. The man was also charged for running a door-to-door drug delivery service in NYC.
Edison Hernandez, 46, allegedly pushed drugs under the pseudonyms “dragoncove” and “Nino” on dark web sites including Silk Road, AlphaBay, Dream Market and Wall Street Market for about six years starting in 2013, prosecutors from the Eastern District of New York said.
Hernandez became a highly rated vendor on the sites, which allowed customers to grade dealers on factors such as quality of the product, reliability and volume.
He eluded law enforcement for years by using the pseudonyms and accepting payment in cryptocurrency, authorities said.
Hernandez then worked with two other suspected dealers, 42-year-old Michael Caruso and Raymer Ynoa, 32, to sell cocaine, methamphetamine, ketamine and MDMA in a door-to-door delivery service in Manhattan and Brooklyn for three years beginning in 2019.
The suspects advertised the service as “Nino & Viktor’s Pastry Shoppe” and allowed customers to order drugs over encrypted messaging apps, according to an indictment unsealed against them.
A delivery person would then allegedly hand off the drugs after the deal was set up.
A fourth suspect named Irvin Hernandez, was also charged in a separate criminal complaint with working for the delivery service.
Each of the 3 suspects will face up to 40 years in prison if convicted. They are to appear in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday afternoon.
In a statement, Breon Peace, the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said dealers operating on the dark web would not stop law enforcement from tracking them down.
“Hiding behind the dark web, encryption services, or bitcoin will not stop this Office from rooting out those who flood our communities with illegal and hazardous narcotics,” Peace said.
I THOUGHT THE DA IN NEW YORK WASNT ARRESTING ANYONE ON MICKEY MOUSE CRIMES, ONLY ARRESTING OLD HARD WORKING MEN WHO KILL WOULD BE ROBBERS, THIEVES , CONVICTS WHO ARE TRYING TO ROB AN OLD MAN WORKING FOR A HARD LIFE TO LIVE , THANKS TO FJB AND HIS FUCKING CRIMINAL CRONIES.