Seven Georgians have been indicted in federal court in Athens for allegedly conspiring to ship thousands of parcels containing fentanyl and methamphetamine across the country using a dark web vendor account.
While the indictment was returned by a federal grand jury more than a month ago, two of the defendants weren’t arraigned until last week.
Search warrants executed on May 19 at various locations in metro Atlanta turned up about 5 kilograms of fentanyl-based powder, about 1 kilo of cocaine, several pounds of marijuana, about 200 pills, six firearms, and vehicles. The indictment alleges that a dark web vendor controlled by Stephen Oboite and Eric Bechet, called WallStreetBets, began distributing large quantities of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other controlled substances.
They shipped parcels of the illegal drugs from Georgia to many locations within the United States, reporting 2,777 sales on the “Previous Vendor Feedback” section of a dark web market.
The packages shared common characteristics like padded or bubble-wrap-lined mailing envelopes and prepaid shipping labels generated by a third-party postage provider that accepted cryptocurrency as payment.
