Dark web vendor PerpetualEuphoria who sold heroin has been sentenced to 5 years in prison. U.S. attorneys said that he went to extreme lengths to avoid getting caught. He is a resident of Mill Creek.
Zachary Madding, 31, was said to have encrypted his messages, and accepted payments only in cryptocurrency and shipped his drugs in a way that avoided detection by police dogs.
According to U.S. attorney Marie Dalton, “Although the Defendant claimed to be selling ‘PerpetualEuphoria,’ in reality he was peddling addiction, self destruction, and suffering.”
Despite his best efforts, he was caught. Madding was sentenced on Monday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to five years in prison.
The person who is before me is not a good person, He is a common criminal who is engaged in the most serious behavior…. On the dark web you have no idea who you are dealing with … Because of your actions, there are 1,600 families out there who are going through the pain of addiction.
U.S. District Judge James L. Robart
Madding’s was very successful in evading authorities’ with his dark web business, he was able to avoid attention until police responded to reports of an attack in May 2018 at a Mukilteo hotel.
In the hotel room, Madding is said to have allegedly shoved Xanax down his ex-girlfriend’s throat and sprayed fentanyl up her nose. After officers responded, they found the woman in a dire state and gave her Narcan to revive her.
The jury later convicted Madding of second-degree assault in Snohomish County Superior Court. He was sentenced to 2½ years in prison.
In the hotel room, police found fake Identity Cards, shipping labels, drug ledgers, crushed Xanax tabs and the fentanyl spray.
Madding being senteced for selling heroin
Homeland Security investigators found that Madding was selling heroin through marketplaces on the dark web, since 2016. According to the U.S. attorneys, Madding made more than 1,600 sales, totaling $72,000. He sold heroin and other drugs.
According to madding, “We have never had a parcel seized in our vending history,”.
One reviewer on the dark web described Madding’s business as “the amazon prime of H.”
Even when authorities took down the marketplaces Madding used to sell his product, he continued to sell.
Representing the defense, attorney Scott Engelhard wrote that Madding had been addicted to opioids ever since a dentist prescribed him some as a 17 year old child. From this addiction he started consuming heroin, fentanyl and Xanax.
After leaving high school, he worked as a commercial fisherman until he couldn’t hold the job because of his addiction. He went on to become a low-level drug dealer selling heroin. Then he moved on to selling online because it was safer, and more lucrative.
According to his lawyer, the three years Madding spent in jail is the longest he’s been sober as an adult.
Engelhard wrote, “And at 31 years old, he now has the maturity and insight to realize that he is at a crossroads in his life, either sobriety, family support and good employment, or daily putting his life in jeopardy and ending back in prison for a very long time.”