Dark web drug dealer sentenced to four years in prison for shipping heroin and meth across the country

Seattle – A 52-year-old Everett, Washington, man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to four years in prison and four years of supervised release, announced U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran.  TODD A. PETERMAN-DISHION pleaded guilty in December 2019 to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.  At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik noted the overdose deaths across the country, saying the defendant “didn’t know what happened when he shipped drugs via mail… he didn’t know if the customer was 16 or 14.”

“This defendant was busily sending packages of powerful and deadly drugs out into our communities as often as twice a day,” said U.S. Attorney Moran.  “He posted on the dark web that his drugs were powerful and potentially deadly, but even with that knowledge he had no hesitation sending them to addicts he knew only by their screen name and address.”

According to records filed in the case, the investigation revealed that in 2018, and until June 2019, PETERMAN-DISHION was shipping heroin and methamphetamine to customers across the country.  PETERMAN-DISHION posted on the dark web about the drugs he had for sale: black tar heroin and crystal methamphetamine.  He posted about the drugs’ purity and noted they were “not for beginners.”  He made more than 1,650 drug sales.

When law enforcement executed a Court-authorized search warrant at the long‑stay hotel where PETERMAN-DISHION and his wife were living, they found heroin that was intended for sale to his dark web customers.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the FBI.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Thomas Woods.