LOS ANGELES, CA — The last of four men convicted of running what prosecutors say was “one of the most prolific” drug-selling operations on the dark web was sentenced to nearly five years in prison on Tuesday.
Davit Avalyan, 36, of Glendale was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in October of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, ketamine, and MDMA.
He was the last of four defendants to be sentenced in the case: Hrant Gevorgyan, 36, of Glendale, Hayk Grigoryan, 36, a.k.a. “Hayk Greg,” of Glendale, and Gurgen Nersesyan, 44, a.k.a. “Guro Tiko,” of Sherman Oaks have been sentenced to between two and 10 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The men operated vendor accounts under names including JoyInc on several drug marketplaces on the dark web, selling meth, cocaine, MDMA and ketamine to customers across the U.S. in exchange for cryptocurrency, according to prosecutors.
“JoyInc is believed to have been operating since at least 2018 and is one of the most prolific methamphetamine and cocaine distributors to ever operate on the Darknet,” federal prosecutors said in a statement.
After customers ordered the drugs online, the men shipped the drugs from LA County to locations across the country using the U.S. Postal Service, prosecutors said.
“Avalyan would obtain tracking labels and purchase bulk quantities of postage stamps from United States Post Offices to ship drug orders,” reads a court document obtained by Patch.
The men were arrested last year after their operation was under investigation since at least November 2018, when an undercover FBI agent successfully purchased two grams of cocaine from the men’s vendor account, according to court documents.
In the following years, federal authorities made many other similar purchases, according to court documents.
Authorities served multiple federal search warrants in connection to the case and found evidence, including large amounts of cash and drugs, prosecutors said.