4 from Burbank, Las Vegas arrested in darknet drug smuggling ring
Federal agents this week arrested four men, including two from Burbank, who a grand jury said were part of a lucrative San Fernando Valley-based drug smuggling business that shipped hundreds of thousands of fentanyl-laced counterfeit oxycodone pills and other drugs to customers nationwide.
The four — Alejandra Soto and Austin Blacano, both 21 of Burbank, and Craig Rushton, 23, and Christian McKibben, 20, both of Las Vegas — were hired to pack and ship the drugs as part of a smuggling ring primarily operating online and through the U.S. Postal Service, according to the grand jury’s indictment filed Thursday, May 2.
By selling drugs through what’s commonly known as “the darknet,” a collection of underground marketplaces accessible only through specialized software, the group amassed a small fortune over just two years. According to the indictment, in July 2021 the ring brought in $160,000 in profit.
Investigators targeted the ring just three months after they set up their darknet accounts and began shipping drugs in huge orders — by August 2021, the group had unknowingly sold a shipment of drugs to an undercover DEA agent. By May 2023, federal agents had arrested the three ringleaders: Brian McDonald, 22, of Van Nuys, Ciara Clutario, 22, of Burbank and Sebastian Rodriguez.
The ringleaders appeared to have hired Soto, Blacano, Rushton and McKibben when it became clear to them they could not pack and ship all the orders they were receiving on their own.
“i’m really tryna make like 5 mil…and disappear,” McDonald told Clutario in a text message on July 26, 2021. Four days later, McDonald organized a packing spree at his Van Nuys residence to get 30 orders of drugs ready to be shipped.
“[a]ll packs should be in the mail by 5 pm…[y]ou guys need to BE HERE at 10 AM SHARP,” McDonald told the group in a series of text messages. “this is a real life job…(Rodriguez) is the boss when I am gone.”
All four arrested this week were charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and cocaine, two counts of distribution of fentanyl and one count of distribution of cocaine. If convicted of all the charges, each could face up to 10 years in prison.
After their arrests, Soto and Blacano appeared in federal court in Downtown Los Angeles on Thursday, May 16. Information for their attorneys was not available Thursday.
The indictment unsealed this week laid out in detail the process for starting an online drug smuggling business in an era of smartphones, cryptocurrency and easy access to darknet markets available through encrypted networks. The ring used Tor, a free, open-source network that famously also was employed by the Silk Road, an online black-market shutdown by federal law enforcement in 2013.
The smuggling ring targeted this week received cryptocurrency in exchange for shipments of drugs. Starting in April 2021, McDonald and Clutario set up and maintained accounts on marketplaces with names like “White House Market,” “ToRReZ” and “AlphaBay” where customers could find them and buy drugs.
The pair are expected to be tried on drug charges in August.
According to the indictment, McDonald crisscrossed the country in order to keep drugs flowing through his operation in his Van Nuys home. As they were setting up the ring, McDonald told Rodriguez he was in Kentucky manufacturing the drugs they would later sell.
“My boy (you’re) walter white from breaking bad now or something,” Rodriguez texted back.