Chicago Drug Treatment Worker Pleads Guilty to Distributing Heroin via the Internet

          A 47-year-old Chicago man pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to distributing controlled substances, announced U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes. KEVIN C. CAMPBELL sold heroin and prescription drugs such as Xanax and valium using the dark web. In August 2013, CAMPBELL sold heroin and prescription medications to a 27-year-old Bellevue, Washington man who died after taking the prescription drugs and shooting up with heroin.

          “This case is an outrage and a tragedy at the same time,” said U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes. “What allowed this defendant to work at a drug treatment center with people in the grips of addiction, and at the same time peddle dangerous drugs across the country via the dark web? The heroin this defendant sold killed one of his customers. At sentencing we will ask the Court for a sentence that reflects that fact.”

          According to records filed in the case, emergency crews were called to a home in Bellevue in August 2013, when a house guest found 27-year-old Jordan Mettee unconscious in his bedroom. On the computer in front of him was the ‘Silk Road’ website, an online black market where illegal goods and services were anonymously marketed and sold. On the screen were messages from a vendor, later determined to be CAMPBELL’s online identity. The investigation revealed that CAMPBELL was a drug dealer on the dark web site, sending prescription drugs, heroin and other illegal substances to customers across the country who ordered online and paid via bitcoin. CAMPBELL concealed and delivered the drugs in altered DVD cases. One DVD case recovered near Mettee’s body was found to have CAMPBELL’s fingerprint on it. Even after the Silk Road website was shut down, CAMPBELL continued to sell drugs to customers, in one instance sending Xanax pills to a customer in Colorado who was working with law enforcement. In May 2014, law enforcement obtained a search warrant to search CAMPBELL’s Chicago home and found evidence of his drug trafficking including a small amount of drugs, digital scales, notes, empty DVD cases and shipping materials.

          Under the terms of the plea agreement, prosecutors can ask for up to ten years in prison when CAMPBELL is sentenced on May 9, 2017, by U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour.

          The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Bellevue Police Department and the Eastside Narcotics Task Force. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Steven Masada.