PHOENIX, Arizona — June 14, Judge Veronica Dittman, 28, of Tempe, runs multiple darknet pages selling illegal drugs along with two previously convicted co-conspirators was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. The ruling follows a multi-agency investigation involving the Arizona Homeland Security Investigations Service (HSI).
“Illicit dark web marketplaces pose a significant threat to the public health, economy and national security,” said HSI Arizona Special Agent Scott Brown. “These rulings should resonate with those looking to use the darknet to sell lethal drugs. We have no intention of slowing down the investigation of darknet users.”
The Darknet (also known as the Dark Web) is the part of the Internet that hosts darknet markets, or hidden commercial websites. Darknet markets act as black markets, selling not only legal goods, but also drugs, weapons, counterfeit currency, stolen credit card details, counterfeit documents, unlicensed drugs, steroids, and other illegal goods. Sell or broker illegal goods.
From approximately January 2022 to August 2022, Dittman and co-conspirators Rick Schiffner, 31, and Devin Langer, 30, were based in Phoenix and worked on the darknet, according to court documents. It operated under the nicknames “Trusted Traphouse,” “Golden Trails,” and “Popcorn Plug.” Others span at least a dozen different darknet markets. In these markets, the conspirators promoted a variety of controlled substances, including crystalline methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and counterfeit tablets containing fentanyl, which the conspirators advertised as oxycodone.
During the course of the conspiracy, the conspirators used these accounts to sell over 1,300 controlled substance sales on the darknet, including at least 800 grams of counterfeit pills containing fentanyl, 500 grams of methamphetamine, 16 grams of heroin, Distributed 7 grams of cocaine. The conspirators described compressed tablets containing fentanyl in one market as “no ordinary oxycodone” and told potential customers, “These are much stronger than pharmaceutical oxycodone…these were manufactured by a pharmacy. It’s nothing.” He also warned customers to “be careful”.
Mr. Dittman primarily worked with Mr. Schiffner to process, pack and ship orders via the darknet. Dittmann also operated his own vendor account on the darknet, using the nicknames “VirtualPeddler” and “Darkette.” Prior to her arrest, she had made at least 74 controlled substance sales through these accounts, most of them fentanyl.
Schiffner was sentenced to 150 months in prison on April 14, 2023, and Langer was sentenced to 84 months in prison on April 17, 2023.
HSI, FBI Washington Criminal Division, U.S. Postal Inspection Service Washington Division Inspector General, FDA Criminal Investigation Bureau Metro Washington Division, FBI Phoenix and Las Vegas Divisions, USPIS Phoenix Division, Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, Arizona Department of Public Safety, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department We investigated this incident.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Cole of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia has filed the case.
HSI is the primary investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), investigating cross-border crime and threats, particularly those that exploit the global infrastructure used for international trade, travel, and financial movement. I am in charge of HSI’s more than 8,700 employees are made up of her more than 6,000 special agents stationed in 237 US cities and 93 international offices in 56 countries. HSI’s international presence represents DHS’s largest foreign investigative law enforcement presence and is one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.
