On Wednesday, Nov. 9, the ringleader of a once-famous US-based darknet market vendor network was sentenced to nine years in jail after pleading guilty to money laundering and drug trafficking crimes. Chester Anderson, 48, acknowledged to being the mastermind behind the sinmed vendor team, which is believed to have operated on multiple darknet markets for around six years before being busted in 2019.
Anderson testified in court that he used pre-paid debit cards to launder around $2.3 million in darknet drug purchases, the majority of which were bogus Xanax bars, GHB, and ketamine. Authorities initially became aware of his darknet market activities after a junior investigator discovered suspicious ATM transfers totaling more than $1 million in Manhattan and New Jersey.
At the time, the dismantling of sinmed’s operation in 2019, in which Anderson and his associates were detained, was hailed as “the greatest dark web drug ring bust ever.” Around 600,000 fake Xanax bars, 500 vials of fentanyl-laced heroin, and substantial quantities of methamphetamine, ketamine, GHB, and other unspecified narcotics were seized in the bust.
During the 2019 raid, a bucket of home-pressed Xanax tablets was confiscated. Manhattan District Attorney
Anderson formed a shell corporation called Next Level Research with the assistance of a co-conspirator in order to purchase approximately 2,200 pounds of microcrystalline cellulose for use as filler in his Xanax bars. Anderson also purchased a pill press, powder mixer, and “punch dies” to imprint the word “Xanax” on the side of his alprazolam-containing pills.
While sinmed was most known for their Dream shop, the vendor also had a presence on Wall Street Market, as well as several other now-defunct markets, and ran its own independent vendor site. The most renowned product they were known for was a “kpack,” which was a box of 1,000 pressed Xanax bars.
The merchant has been active on multiple darknet markets since the original Silk Road, according to a four-year-old Dread post by a user named sinmed – who could not be confirmed to be Anderson himself. The majority of sinmed entries on Dread were positive, with dozens of praising reviews about the vendor’s promptness, quality, and professionalism.