Two residents of Texas have been charged with a dark web drug distribution conspiracy.
The men Kevin Ombisi, 31, and Eric Russell Jr, 35, both residents of Katy, Texas, were both arrested on Thursday, February 11, 2021 and charged in a complaint filed in the Western District of Tennessee. Kevin Ombisi has been charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of unlawful distribution of controlled substances, and Eric Russell has been charged with one count of conspiracy.
Prosecutors allege that they both used a dark web marketplace and an encrypted messaging service Wickr to sell pills spoofed to look like Adderall, a prescription medication in the US commonly used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
According to the Department of Justice (DoJ), the pills contained highly addictive synthetic stimulant methamphetamine.
The feds claimed that they seized $5m in assets connected to the charges.
According to the affidavit, from the government the DEA agents made purchases from the duo which were mailed from Texas to addresses in Tennessee, Kansas and Missouri.
They had a vendor’s profile on dark web marketplace Empire. This profile had over 2,000 five-star reviews and “3657 sold since April 2019,” according to court documents.
The feds are said said they traced the “Postage Reseller” account used by Kevin Ombisi to ship the items, plus GPS and CCTV data from post offices, to track him down.
The feds also analyzed multiple Bitcoin wallet addresses and managed to link them to accounts with a cryptocurrency exchange in EU.
A search warrant then provided the investigators with access to Ombisi’s iCloud account, where they were able to find more incriminating evidence.
Empire Market dissolved in August 2020 after a suspected exit scam.
