Man sentenced for child porn and selling fentanyl on the darknet
A 20-year-old man died of an overdose days after purchasing fentanyl analogs from Sean Shaughnessy, the DOJ says
A darknet fentanyl dealer was sentenced to federal prison for possessing child pornography and committing multiple drug offenses, the Department of Justice says.
Northern District of Texas U.S. Attorney, Leigha Simonton said 55-year-old Sean Shaughnessy sold several drugs including fentanyl, carfentanil (a frequently abused elephant tranquilizer) and pentedrone and was sentenced to 293 months behind bars.
Shaughnessy was indicted in April 2019 and was convicted at trial in June 2023.
Shaughnessy’s customers were on the dark web, an unindexed part of the internet that can only be accessed through specialized software. On the dark web, users can remain largely anonymous.
The customers used cryptocurrency like Bitcoin to purchase the drugs and Shaughnessy would ship the drugs to their addresses in the Dallas area and all over the world.
Customers from the DFW area testified in his trial that the drugs, such as fentanyl, came fast and were of high potency.
A 20-year-old man died of an overdose just days after purchasing fentanyl analogs from Shaughnessy.
Shaughnessy instructed the sending of tens of thousands of dollars from the proceeds of his illegal drugs to himself in the Dallas area, a Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent testified in the trial.
Another agent testified that Shaughnessy claimed that the agents would have to “check his taxes” to determine what he did for work. The Internal Revenue Service found that Shaughnessy had filed no taxes for the applicable periods.
A video of Shaughnessy’s arrest from July 2016 showed a baggie of drugs from his pocket fall while the officers were handcuffing him. He then tried to kick the baggie out of the way.
Although the baggie was visible on the officers’ body-camera footage, the defendant insisted, “That ain’t mine,” when the officers noticed it.
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