A Santa Clarita man was sentenced to 96 months in federal prison for running a drug trafficking organization that distributed heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine through darknet marketplaces. Jerrell Eugene Anderson, 34, was sentenced by US District Judge George H. Wu.
On June 10, Anderson pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute heroin, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
Anderson conspired with others to sell drugs on darknet marketplaces such as Dream and Wall Street Market from July 2018 to March 2019, using aliases such as “Drugpharmacist” and “rickandmortyshop,” according to the press release.
The operation involved packaging drugs in stuffed animals and shipping them from San Fernando Valley stash houses to post offices across Los Angeles for nationwide distribution. Anderson and a co-conspirator distributed heroin to a victim in Knoxville, Tennessee, who died as a result.
The press release stated that Anderson and others were discovered in a Glendale apartment in March 2019 with methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine, as well as a semiautomatic pistol.
Other defendants in the case, including Christopher Canion Von Holton, 37, of Woodland Hills; Kenneth Lashawn Hadley, 37, of Las Vegas; Adan Sepulveda, 31, of Palmdale; and Jackie Walter Burns, 26, of Lancaster, have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and received sentences.
The investigation was carried out by the US Postal Inspection Service, the FBI, the Los Angeles Police Department, and other law enforcement agencies. Assistant US Attorneys Khaldoun Shobaki and Lauren Restrepo from the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section prosecuted the case.