Tattoo shop owner sold heroin, meth on dark web, shipped it in bags of candy, feds say

A tattoo shop owner sold heroin and meth on the dark web and shipped it to buyers in bags of candy, according to federal prosecutors in California.

Jason Keith Arnold, 46, was sentenced on Nov. 15 to seven years and three months in prison, according to a new release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of California.

Arnold, along with two co-defendants, sold drugs on a website called “Dream Marketplace,” located on an encrypted part of the internet that can only be accessed using “sophisticated encryption technology” and does not appear on searches via search engines such as Google, according to the release.

Arnold, who owned tattoo parlors in Arizona, processed thousands of transactions for illicit drugs, “including ‘pure gun powder heroin’ and ‘uncut’ methamphetamine,” the release says. Prosecutors say Arnold sold drugs between March 2018 and February 2019, according to the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento.

He and his co-conspirators used the U.S. Postal Service and other shipping companies to send the drugs — hidden in candy packages — around the country, according to the news release.

Federal prosecutors say Arnold and his co-conspirators accepted money for the drugs in cryptocurrency. Accounts associated with the conspirators took in more than $350,000 during the time detectives were monitoring their drugs sales on the dark web.

One parcel intercepted by investigators in 2018 contained two bags of “Haribo Gold” gummy bears that had been cut in half and taped together in the middle to form one large bag, according to a criminal complaint . Inside was a “small silver foil pouch” containing Ziploc baggies with a “dark brown, granular, chunky substance” that appeared to be heroin, the complaint says.

Arnold’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.

One of Arnold’s co-defendants, David White, 50, was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Feb. 17, 2022, according to the news release.

One of White’s attorneys, Kresta Daly, wrote in an email to McClatchy News that White’s sentence is representative of an “unjust” court system.

“He became a drug addict in prison,” Daly wrote. “The system kicked him out onto the streets. (He) didn’t have any form of ID, no social security card, no assistance of any kind. He turned to a ‘friend’ for support because he was living on the streets. The ‘friend’ was a drug dealer.

“The rest is history,” the email says. “Mr. White’s sentence is (a) reflection of an unjust system that throws people away.”

Charges against a second co-defendant Alicia McCoy, 31, are pending, according to the news release. Her attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.

This story was originally published November 16, 2022 at 2:27 PM with the headline "Tattoo shop owner sold heroin, meth on dark web, shipped it in bags of candy, feds say."