Federal drug case reveals dark web of fentanyl sales

A Connecticut man’s recent guilty plea in a federal drug case offers a glimpse into a lucrative black market for homemade fentanyl pills based on the dark web.

Colby John Kopp, 23, pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. to his role in a conspiracy to sell the powerful opioid nationwide from a base in northwestern Connecticut. Kopp, a Winsted resident, faces at least five years in prison when he’s sentenced on April 18.

The veil dropped on the operation in August 2020 when the FBI discovered a dark web vendor called

MadHatterPharma. The account had been set up in May 2020 and the vendor already had completed at least 554 sales, hawking the quality of the pills on the underground website, according to an FBI affidavit.

Using a Torrington address as a base, Kopp and his co-conspirators pressed and packaged tablets made to look like the painkiller Percocet, charging as much as $10 for each pill, according to the FBI. From April 2020 through January 2021, Kopp ordered at least 9 kilograms of baby blue Firmapress tableting mix along with a pill press and punches used to stamp the tablets, the FBI said. He and his crew mailed the drugs from post offices in the area, using fake return addresses, authorities said.

On Aug. 14, 2020, an undercover agent ordered 10 pills, which were advertised as “M/30 Oyxcodone Percocet 30MG,” for $100. MadHatterPharma provided an address where the buyer could pay in bitcoin cryptocurrency. The agent provided a Virginia shipping address and deposited the payment, the affidavit said.

Received several days later, the Priority Mail package contained multiple envelopes with a silver pouch at the center holding 10 blue pills, which tested positive for fentanyl, the FBI said. Investigators found the package was mailed from the post office in the Riverton section of Barkhamsted along with 12 other parcels sent the same day and marked with the same bogus return address.

Investigators traced the bitcoin address provided by MadHatterPharma to Kopp, the FBI said. He had used Coinbase, a company that provides a platform to buy, sell and store cryptocurrency.

In addition to the electronic trail, Kopp’s fingerprints were found on a package received by the FBI on Sept. 10, 2020, the affidavit said. Investigators concluded that he and his crew, including two unindicted co-conspirators, distributed at least 400 grams of fentanyl, authorities said.