A man from California was given more than 20 years in federal prison today for killing someone with a fentanyl overdose and selling cocaine and pills with fentanyl in them on the dark web for hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that from April 2021 to May 2023, Brian McDonald, 23, of Van Nuys, worked with others to sell fentanyl and cocaine on the dark web.
The department says McDonald’s made and controlled vendor profiles on certain platforms and used aliases to sell illegal drugs for cryptocurrency.
The department said that McDonald’s kept an eye on and maintained his vendor profiles by adding new drugs, changing shipping choices, and keeping track of orders.
Besides that, he put Monero cryptocurrency that he got for selling drugs into cryptocurrency wallets that he owned.
The police said McDonald bought large amounts of fentanyl and cocaine and then sold them on the dark web. He was in charge of selling hundreds of drugs, including more than 12 kilograms of fentanyl, which was usually in the form of pills with fentanyl added to them.
The department also said that McDonald had two gold-plated handguns, one of which did not have a serial number. He used these to protect his drug dealing business and the money it made.
According to the department, one of the people who died in the drug distribution operation took a pill that was mixed with fentanyl and sold on the dark web.
In a statement, US Attorney Martin Estrada said, “This defendant was in charge of a drug-trafficking ring that used the dark sides of the internet to send large amounts of pills laced with fentanyl, which had deadly results.”
“My office will keep using all of the tools available under federal law to bring criminals who put money over people to justice and put them in jail.”
