By Mary O’KEEFE

A La Crescenta man and two others were arrested for allegedly using the Darknet to traffic narcotics.

Joseph Gifford, 43, of La Crescenta, and Anh Pham, 49, and Carlos Gallardo, 59, both of Hawaiian Gardens, are facing federal criminal conspiracy charges that they conspired to use the Darknet to illicitly and secretly sell methamphetamine and other illegal narcotics nationwide, according to a statement from the Dept. of Justice, Central District of California.

According to the DOJ, the La Crescenta man was part of the Darknet vendor “Aeirla.” All three pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.

According to the charges, Pham allegedly sold pound quantities of methamphetamine on the Darknet while Gifford and Gallardo packaged them in toys, a beach ball and boxes of Christmas cards and chocolates, then shipped them to customers nationwide including one in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who was actually an undercover agent. Pham allegedly sold the controlled substances on Darknet marketplaces and received payment in online digital currency, primarily Bitcoin.

The court papers also state that Pham allegedly “broadly and openly advertised for sale to the public (that used the darknet to access the marketplace) various illegal controlled substances.” It alleges the trio had mailed packages containing methamphetamine to the undercover agent including “approximately 91.44 grams of actual methamphetamine.”

It is also alleged that on “many other occasions” Pham and Gallardo packaged methamphetamine and/or cocaine in US Postal Service envelopes and mailed them from various post offices throughout LA and Orange County.

According to the DOJ release, the group conducted 2,289 sales of methamphetamine and cocaine as of Nov. 28, 2018. Undercover federal agents conducted 26 purchases of methamphetamine from “Aeirla” between March 2017 and December 2018.

The statutory maximum sentence each defendant faces is life in prison. Gifford also faces a narcotics distribution charge in a separate criminal case brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Pittsburgh.

The Darknet content is not indexed and consists of overlaying networks that use the public Internet but require unique software, configuration and authorization to access. This access is predominately designed to hide the identity of the user, according to the FBI.

  Mary Okeefe