There is no lack of news on dark web vendors falling into the traps of law enforcement officials. Most of the time, it requires an undercover sting, a lot of organization, and several weeks of preparing. Of course, there are the times when the criminals aren’t too smart at masking their stupidity; resulting in their untimely arrest.
In early June, millionaire darknet vendor Skylaar D. Ford was arrested. Due to Ford being on post-release supervision from another wrongdoing at the time, he easily consented to the search of his house; avoiding confrontation. In his home, authorities found 10 pounds of marijuana and 500 grams of MDMA.
“After reading Ford his Miranda rights, Ford explained that he sold marijuana, BHO, and various marijuana related products on Alphabay. The HSI agent wrote that Ford handed over his Alphabay credentials and gave Homeland Security consent to control the vendor account.”
At first, authorities were only able to locate the marijuana. After finding an unopened box addressed to “Skylaar Ford and Orbit” however, the MDMA was discovered. Ford was adamant that the box was irrelevant to the case in the beginning; insisting it was a gift from his mother and then saying it was for his dog.
After a K-9 unit was brought in, Ford gave in and told authorities they could open the box, as it held the drug “Molly” in it. In official court documents, Ford’s confession is explained.
“FORD told me that he was again selling on the dark net site AlphaBay, but this time it was “molly” or MDMA. FORD informed me that he ordered the MDMA from the Netherlands and it was shipped to a friend in Alaska who then repackaged it and sent it to him at his residence.”
Over the course of his sales, Ford raked in over $1 million dollars in profit with a total of 1,684 sales.
