Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., announced the guilty pleas of the two Texas guys Callaway Crain, 35, and Mark Sanchez, 35, for running a steroid and controlled substance business that laundered millions of dollars in crypto and Western Union payments.
The guys sold their products – injectable steroids and oral steroids – via their website “NextDayGear,” and on the dark web. Between 2013 and 2018, Crain and Sanchez allegedly shipped more than 10,000 packages across the U.S., generating more than $2.8 million in revenue through crypto and Western Union payments. Consequently, both pleaded guilty to money laundering and criminal sale of a controlled substance with promised sentences of 2 ½ to 7 ½ years in prison. They are expected to be sentenced on July 12, 2019.
These defendants raked in crypto and cash worth millions on their full-service website that sold prescription-free counterfeit steroids and other controlled substances to customers in all fifty states.
District Attorney Vance
Most customers paid in bitcoin, which the defendants then laundered through online “wallets” before depositing the cash into their bank accounts. Their customers included football players, fitness trainers, police officers, members of the armed services deployed overseas, body builders, drug dealers, doctors, and lawyers.
This was the first conviction for money laundering involving cryptocurrency by New York State prosecutors.
