- FBI agents were investigating a vendor illegally selling narcotics through an online drug market.
- Court records show that agents staked out a house associated with the vendor selling oxycodone.
FBI agents found possible clients of an illegal drug market through a notebook that was not-so-discreetly titled with the dealer's name and a demand: "Please don't touch!"
Over the course of last year, federal law enforcement officials were investigating an online vendor that claimed to sell oxycodone pills on an online darknet market.
According to a criminal complaint filed on Tuesday in the Eastern District of Virginia, the vendor said they could provide clients with 10 to 5,000 oxycodone pills. It also advertised the sale of crystal meth, heroin, and cocaine, the court record stated.
The vendor appeared to operate under different monikers across several darknet markets, the FBI wrote in the complaint. Some of the profile names included: TrustedTraphouse, TrustedTrapper, TrustedTrap, TrustableTraphouse, TrusteeTrap, GoldenTrails, and PopcornPlug.
After making "controlled purchases" of drugs from the vendor using Bitcoin, federal agents were able to connect several individuals and a billing address associated with a cryptocurrency wallet used to make one of the transactions.
One of the individuals was Rick Schiffner, the complaint stated, who was associated with a Phoenix, Arizona address.
Law enforcement officials then surveilled the property and on May 5, 2022, searched the trash can of the residence.
Inside, authorities found a red spiral notebook "with the handwritten title: 'Gratitude List[.] Rick's Please Don't Touch! Rick Schiffner.'"
There were also four sticky notes attached to the notebook labeled with the various darknet markets that the vendor was operating on.
Inside the notebook, there was a handwritten list titled "Dec 28 order." The list contained aliases, presumably for the customers, according to the complaint, and the individual's first and last name next to the alias.
Law enforcement officials determined postage was created for at least 12 of the names on that list by using postage data from the United States Postal Inspection Service.
FBI arrested Schiffner in Phoenix on August 11, 2022, court documents said. He pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
Another dealer associated with the darknet vendor, Devin Langer, was arrested in October. Langer, who was Schiffner's roommate, was also tracked through the FBI's cryptocurrency purchase of drugs.
Attorneys for Schiffner and Langer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The complaint itself seeks an arrest warrant for Veronica Dittman, who is alleged to be associated with Langer and Schiffner.
"The same cryptocurrency exchange that Schiffner utilized was also utilized by Dittman," court documents stated.
In recorded conversations with a federal inmate in Sheridan, Oregon, Schiffner complained that Dittman was "lazy" and that customers were leaving behind negative reviews since he let her "take over the 'market'," the complaint stated.