{"id":272317,"date":"2026-05-15T14:59:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/272317\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T14:59:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:59:23","slug":"second-bust-near-miami-u-in-a-week-reveals-drugs-bought-off-dark-web-court-docs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/272317\/","title":{"rendered":"Second bust near Miami U in a week reveals drugs bought off \u2018dark web\u2019: court docs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">OXFORD, Ohio (WXIX) &#8211; For the second time in a week, Oxford police arrested a suspect during a drug bust near Miami University, according to police and court records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Police say the arrests are all part of an ongoing, monthslong investigation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Michael Verlinden Jr., 22, faces multiple counts of complicity to drug trafficking.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He was taken into custody Thursday during a drug raid on East Walnut Street, police confirm, and booked into the Butler County Jail by 6 p.m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">His arraignment will be via video from the jail on Friday morning, Butler County Area I Court officials tell FOX19 NOW.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/fox19-now\/id449886905\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/fox19-now\/id449886905\" target=\"_blank\">Download the FREE FOX19 NOW news app for iPhone  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.raycom.wxix&amp;hl=en_US\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.raycom.wxix&amp;hl=en_US\" target=\"_blank\">Download the FREE FOX19 NOW news app for Android<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Michael Verlinden Jr.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/CXYNLSQKZJCB3H2LR4OQPFM2BU.gif\" width=\"980\" height=\"571\" \/>Michael Verlinden Jr.(Butler County Sheriff&#8217;s Office)Verlinden was the runner: Court docs<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Verlinden\u2019s case is connected to the arrest one week ago of a Miami University student caught with cocaine by U.S. postal inspectors, court records reveal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Will Esler, 22, was charged on Friday, May 8, with possession of a controlled substance and drug trafficking.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">U.S. Postal Inspectors searched his home near the university in the 200 block of South College Avenue, according to police.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">During the search, authorities seized cocaine, electronics and paraphernalia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The investigation led to Verlinden being the suspect who picked up a package of 30 grams of cocaine shipped to Esler, Verlinden\u2019s criminal complaint states.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">That\u2019s the package intercepted by USPS, police wrote in the court filing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Police signed complicity to drug trafficking charges on Verlinden earlier this week and filed his criminal complaint in Area I Court in Oxford on Thursday, a copy shows.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">It alleges Verlinden picked up the package around lunchtime on May 8 and \u201cran through an alley towards the rear of the building, meeting up with Esler.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Will Esler\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778857163_162_ZN46DMWETJE2NC4AJ55DDFKHFY.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"549\" \/>Will Esler(OPD)Drugs bought \u2018off of the dark web\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Police say they read Verlinden his Miranda rights and said he agreed to talk to a police officer without an attorney present, according to his criminal complaint. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">When police asked him what he believed was in the package, he responded, according to the court record, \u201cthat he assumed drugs and stated \u2018my guess would be cocaine, molly and Xanax\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Police say Verlinden signed a search consent form for his cellphone and provided the passcode.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">When police downloaded it, they said they discovered \u201cnumerous messages between numerous people contacting Verlinden in reference to purchasing drugs or finding people to purchase drugs from,\u201d according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThere are communications between Verlinden and Esler about purchasing drugs off of the dark web and having the drugs sent to Esler\u2019s residence,\u201d police wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox19.com\/page\/report-typos-to-fox19\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Please click here to report it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox19.com\/community\/user-content\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.fox19.com\/community\/user-content\/\">it to us here<\/a> with a brief description.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WXIX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OXFORD, Ohio (WXIX) &#8211; For the second time in a week, Oxford police arrested a suspect during a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[15066,101928,8001,115049,15068,115050,115051,19621,116514,15067,115048,15065,116518,123,125,124,20476,116516,115,10154,113890,116515,116513,115052,116517,15064],"class_list":["post-272317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-15066","tag-butler-county-jail","tag-channel","tag-channel-19-news","tag-cincinnati","tag-college-student-arrested","tag-college-student-arrested-for-drug-trafficking","tag-drug-investigation","tag-drugs-in-oxford-and-around-miami-university","tag-fox","tag-fox-19","tag-fox19","tag-men-arrested-in-drug-busts-near-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-miami-university","tag-michael-verlinden-jr","tag-news","tag-ohio","tag-oxford-police-department","tag-oxford-police-dismantle-drug-flow-near-miami-u","tag-second-bust-near-miami-u-in-a-week-reveals-drugs-bought-off-dark-web-court-docs","tag-south-college-avenue","tag-will-esler","tag-wxix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}