36-year-old pleads guilty to selling drugs on dark web

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - A 36-year-old man pleaded guilty on Thursday to selling drugs on the dark web.

According to a release, Mark Faulkner pleaded guilty to distribution of a controlled substance analogue.

Faulkner was found during a 2017 multi-agency federal investigation into illegal drug sales on the dark web.

“Marketplaces on the dark web, like AlphaBay, Dream, and Hansa, function as a place where a wide variety of illegal goods and services, including narcotics, firearms, child pornography, stolen credit card numbers, and counterfeit identity documents, can be bought and sold with greater anonymity than on the traditional Internet,” a release said.

A release said Faulkner used the vendor name CHANG1927 to advertise Adderall and fentanyl products on several dark web marketplaces.

“Investigators identified Faulkner through Bitcoin exchange transactions and three purchases of drugs that were advertised as fentanyl. Forensic testing later determined that the substance was actually cyclopropyl fentanyl, an analogue of fentanyl. Controlled substance analogues have chemical structures that are substantially similar, and have similar effects on the central nervous system as the controlled substances,” the release said.

Faulkner is scheduled to be sentenced on April 29 and faces up to 20 years in prison.

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