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A 29-year-old woman named Carolyn Hernandez-Taylor was one of the ringleaders, according to court filings, who was particularly active in the distribution of fake Xanax, cocaine, and other narcotics using the Opiateconnect vendor profile. This information was obtained through investigations by the Detroit Dark Web Task Force.
Aerial Surveillance & Covert Shipments
The task force’s investigations revealed that the vendor has been active at least since 2016. The vendor distributes via a vendor store, Jabber direct transactions, and vendor accounts on several Dark Web markets.
When it comes to the vendor account in 2018, the investigators discovered that Victor Hernandez was its owner. As some of the participants in the drug trafficking operation, they also named Taylor and Elizabeth Lynn-Maire Alvarez-Garcia, one of her associates.
The investigators used a helicopter to carry out continuous electronic and video monitoring from December 2021 to June 2022. The detectives discovered that Taylor had commuted from her home to a house thought to be the packing and processing hub for Opiateconnect‘s shipments.
She would stay at the house for a few hours and then exit through the back door with full garbage bags that she would load into her car. Alvarez-Garcia would then receive the garbage bags from her when she met her. After that, Alvarez-Garcia would travel to a post office and mail many drug shipments.
A handful of the shipments sent by Alvarez-Garcia were intercepted by the investigators. The detectives seized a parcel that was sent to the address they had used to acquire cocaine through Opiateconnect in February 2022. Cocaine was detected in the material that was discovered in the box.
Dark Web Drug Lab Uncovered: Guns, Cash, and Cryptocurrency Seized
The detectives carried out a search warrant at the home connected to Opiateconnect‘s operations on August 23, 2022. The drug lab used to create the tablets sold by Opiateconnect was discovered by the investigators. The agents discovered and seized a sizable pill press, mixer, mixing materials, clonazolam, and etizolam used to make fake Xanax bars inside the lab. Additionally, the agents discovered a lot of cocaine, MDMA, packing materials, and mailing supplies.
Along with various guns and more than $300,000 in cash, the search also netted the recovery of around $1 million in cryptocurrencies.
On August 31, a five-count indictment against Taylor and Hernandez was delivered.
Taylor entered a plea of guilty on July 19, 2023, to three counts: conspiracy to distribute a counterfeit drug, conspiracy to launder money, and conspiracy to possess with the purpose to distribute a restricted substance.