A man Sean Shaughnessy, 55, of North texas was found guilty on Wednesday of “multiple drug charges and possession of child pornography,” according to a press release from the United States Department of Justice. He faces up to 80 years in a federal prison.
In July 2016 Shaughnessy was arrested after an undercover operation revealed that he was selling fentanyl and other drugs over the dark web.
Shaughnessy, would ship the drugs to the addresses of the buyers and accept bitcoin as payment, according to the DOJ.
“Drug traffickers who think operating on the darknet will shield them from prosecution should think again,” U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton said in the release.
Body cam footage from the arrest shows Shaughnessy with white powder visible around his nose, according to the release. He dropped a bag from his pockets and attempted to kick it away. When the officers noticed the bag, Shaughnessy denied that it was his.
At the trial, former customers of Shaughnessy testified about the drugs he shipped to their North Texas homes. They said the potency of the drugs he sold was high.
An undercover Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent testified that Shaughnessy had directed “tens of thousands of dollars of illicit drug proceeds to be sent to the Dallas area.”
“We are grateful to the many agents and officers — both in uniform and undercover — that worked together to arrest Mr. Shaughnessy,” Simonton said.
Simonton warned others that the attorney’s office will “scour the darkest recesses of the internet to find those dealing fentanyl, a drug that shatters lives and wrecks futures.”
One of Shaughnessy’s customers, a 20-year-old man, died of a fentanyl overdose just days after making a purchase, officials said.
“Our team of special agents and criminal analysts will never relent in our resolve to bring to justice those that seek financial gain by selling this poison in our neighborhoods as we all work tirelessly as a community to address drug addiction and fatal overdoses throughout the country,” said Lester R. Hayes Jr., the Special Agent in Charge of HSI Dallas.