Christopher Michael Sweeney II, a citizen of Cross Junction, Virginia, was recently sentenced to time in prison nearly two years after selling flubromazolam-laced Smarties.
Sweeney’s journey began in June 2015, when he purchased Smarties laced with flubromazolam off a black market located on the dark web. Repeating the purchase several times leading up to September 2015, Sweeney was able to make a hefty profit off the resale.
Despite flubromazolam not being listed as a Schedule I drug at the time, it was still a “designer synthetic drug” that was unapproved by the US Food and Drug Administration for human consumption. If taken, the toxic drug has the possibility of causing serious bodily injury or even death.
When he started selling his laced Smarties, Sweeney told his customers that he was selling Xanax and drugs similar to Xanax. Sweeney kept up this lie even after several people reported black outs and car accidents after digestion.
Fast forward to September 21, 2015 and Sweeney’s trail of deception took a fateful end when a Winchester woman died of a flubromazolam overdose. Authorities were very sympathetic in response to the overdose, but not so much with the following arrest.
“This is a great example of the challenge that law enforcement faces in a society where there are constantly evolving controlled substance analogues that are being produced abroad and ordered by utilizing the dark web. We are pleased to have a successful prosecution and even more so that flubromazolam is now recognized as a Schedule I controlled substance in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
Sweeney was condemned in Harrisonburg this past week; pleading guilty to one count of “conspiracy to ship and receive a misbranded drug in interstate commerce with the intent to defraud and mislead”.
He was sentenced to 4 years in prison and 3 years of supervised release. Hopefully kids will not start making drug dealing via the dark web a trend.