A former professional skateboarder from Long Beach was sentenced on Wednesday, Jan. 19, to eight years in federal prison for selling drugs and laundering Bitcoin with other drug traffickers on the dark web.
Evan Jaime Hernandez, 35, was sentenced at federal court in Santa Ana after pleading guilty to one count each of distribution of methamphetamine and laundering of monetary instruments in June, the Department of Justice said in a statement.
Hernandez admitted to distributing the narcotics from at least March 2018 to March 2019, in addition to conspiring with dealers based in Orange County to distribute drugs over one of the world’s largest darknet marketplaces, according to court records.
In March 2018, he sold nearly two pounds of methamphetamine to a person he believed was a money launderer but was actually working with federal law enforcement at the time, records show. Over one year, Hernandez worked with the same person four times, totaling around $171,000 in Bitcoin-to-cash exchanges.
Hernandez worked alone, in addition to with a father and son who were also traffickers, based in Huntington Beach and Irvine, officials said. The father was sentenced to 15 years, while the son received 10.
During a search warrant in March 2019 at a location of one of Hernandez’s associates, officials recovered nearly 15 pounds of methamphetamine that Hernandez distributed and would have been used to fill orders placed on the darknet, the Department of Justice said.
“(Hernandez) was involved in a highly sophisticated drug-trafficking operation, where he personally took on various roles to ensure its success: obtaining multiple types of narcotics, selling them directly to customers, and laundering money on the back end in a sophisticated manner,” prosecutors said in court documents.
In addition to prison time, Hernandez was ordered to forfeit to the government a 2010 Mercedes-Benz, approximately $35,000 in cash, and various jewelry pieces such as watches, necklaces and rings.
Source: Orange County Register
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