North Texas fentanyl dealer on dark web found guilty and faces up to 80 years in prison
Sean Shaughnessy, 55, was found guilty Wednesday of “multiple drug charges and possession of child pornography,” according to a press release from the United States Department of Justice.
Shaughnessy faces up to 80 years in federal prison.
Shaughnessy was arrested in July 2016 after an undercover operation revealed he was selling fentanyl and other drugs over the dark web.
The darknet is an unindexed part of the internet that can only be accessed through specialized software and allows users to remain almost anonymous. Cryptocurrencies were accepted by Shaughnessy, who would ship the drugs to the addresses of the buyers, according to the DOJ.
“Drug traffickers who think operating on the darknet will shield them from prosecution should think again,” U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton said in the release.
Body-cam footage from the arrest shows Shaughnessy with white powder visible around his nose, according to the release. He dropped a bag from his pockets and attempted to kick it away. When the officers noticed the bag, Shaughnessy denied that it was his.
At the trial, former customers of Shaughnessy testified about the drugs he shipped to their North Texas homes. They said the potency of the drugs he sold was high.
An undercover Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent testified that Shaughnessy had directed “tens of thousands of dollars of illicit drug proceeds to be sent to the Dallas area.”
“We are grateful to the many agents and officers — both in uniform and undercover — that worked together to arrest Mr. Shaughnessy,” Simonton said.
Simonton warned others that the attorney’s office will “scour the darkest recesses of the internet to find those dealing fentanyl, a drug that shatters lives and wrecks futures.”
One of Shaughnessy’s customers, a 20-year-old man, died of a fentanyl overdose just days after making a purchase, officials said.
“Our team of special agents and criminal analysts will never relent in our resolve to bring to justice those that seek financial gain by selling this poison in our neighborhoods as we all work tirelessly as a community to address drug addiction and fatal overdoses throughout the country,” said Lester R. Hayes Jr., the Special Agent in Charge of HSI Dallas.
