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Glendale Man Gets 10 Years for Darknet Drug Ring Role
A 41-year-old Glendale man, Arbi Setaghaian Sangbarani, was sentenced to 120 months in federal prison for his role in a darknet-based drug trafficking organization known as ‘NoLove.’
According to the Department of Justice, Sangbarani was a member of ‘NoLove,’ which operated from April 2019 to May 2020. The organization sold, packaged, and mailed methamphetamine and Ecstasy to numerous customers in the United States and internationally.
As part of the conspiracy, Sangbarani and his co-conspirators obtained methamphetamine and MDMA from sources of supply, stored them to be packaged at a residence in the Sunland-Tujunga area of Los Angeles, managed the sales on the dark web in exchange for virtual currency, and packaged the drugs for distribution to customers who ordered them on the darknet.
Sangbarani also conspired to launder the illicit proceeds of the drug trafficking operation. One of his accomplices collected bitcoin as proceeds from the sale of drugs on the dark web and transferred a portion of those virtual currency proceeds to Sangbarani. Sangbarani then exchanged the bitcoin into U.S. dollars, transferred the dollars to his bank account, and withdrew the proceeds as cash.
This was the first time the government has introduced evidence involving cryptocurrency tracing for dark web markets in a jury trial in this district. In total, federal prosecutors have secured eight convictions in connection with this conspiracy.
On February 10, 2020, at the Sunland-Tujunga residence, law enforcement seized approximately 6,701 suspected MDMA pills and approximately 22.2 kilograms (48.9 pounds) of methamphetamine from a shed on the property.
The FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and the United States Postal Inspection Service investigated this matter. Assistant United States Attorneys Joseph S. Guzman and Alexandra M. Michael prosecuted the case.
U.S. District Judge André Birotte Jr. handed down the sentence. Sangbarani was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and MDMA, commonly known as Ecstasy, as well as one count of money laundering conspiracy and two counts of money laundering.
Key Facts
- State: California
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Drug Trafficking|Fraud & Financial Crimes|Violent Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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