Heroin Vendor “Bestman365” Sentenced to Prison
A Maryland man was sentenced to seven years in prison for selling heroin through a vendor account on the darkweb.
According to court records, 44-year-old Russell Ramseur, of Maryland, sold heroin on the darkweb from at least April 2014 until December 2015. Ramseur admitted operating a vendor account under the username “Bestman365” on the Pandora and Agora darkweb marketplaces. It appears as if Ramseur controlled the following accounts as they shared a PGP key (‘0x8E8A1347A9E769AE’), according to records on Recon:
- Expressman on Agora;
- Expressman on Evolution;
- Bestman365 on Agora;
- Bestman365 on Pandora
- kingofcokeman on Agora and;
- MRGOOD247 on Dream,
Bestman365 had completed 2,123 transactions on Agora and 933 on Pandora.
During the investigation into Ramseur’s drug trafficking operation, investigators intercepted at least nine packages of heroin. Police also found $13,000 in cash during a search of a house owned by one of Ramseur’s co-conspirators. Ramseur had told the police that the seized cash was the result of his heroin trafficking operation.
Investigators estimated that Ramseur had distributed between one and three kilograms of heroin during his operation. They estimated this number based on the reviews on the Bestman365 account and the “the length of the drug trafficking conspiracy.” Ramseur agreed that, based on that estimation, it was “reasonably foreseeable” that he had sold between one and three kilograms of heroin.
Ramseur pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute at least one kilogram of heroin and possession with intent to distribute heroin. On November 9, 2021, US District Judge George J. Hazel sentenced him to seven years in federal prison followed by five years of supervised release.
DNL note: Although the so-called “Dark Market and Digital Currency Crimes (DMDCC) Task Force” seemingly came into existence last month after the CaliClaire sentencing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland has credited them for the succesful conviction of Bestman365. The task force includes all of the usual federal investigative agencies (USPIS, FBI, ICE-HSI, DEA, IRS-CI, USSS, etc) as well as the Defense Criminal Investigative Service which is the investigative arm of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General.