Fairfax Man Sentenced In Conspiracy To Distribute Meth Using Darknet

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — A Fairfax man was sentenced to 52 months in prison on Tuesday after reaching a plea agreement with federal prosecutors for conspiring to distribute methamphetamine through the darknet in a conspiracy that involved other Fairfax County residents, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Tyler Pham, 39, conspired to distribute peach tablets through the U.S. mail that were advertised as Adderall but actually contained methamphetamine, the Justice Department said. Six other people previously entered guilty pleas in connection with the conspiracy and were sentenced to more than 13 years in prison combined.

From about May 2019 through December 2019, Pham conspired to distribute the peach tablets, according to court documents. Pham used the moniker “addy4cheap” on darknet markets, the Empire Market and Cryptonia.

In their investigation, police agents purchased 767 tablets, weighing about 268 grams total, from “addy4cheap” between August 2019 and December 2019.

On Dec. 9, 2019, search warrants were executed at Pham and his co-conspirators' residences, including the homes of Lien Kim Thi Phan, 37, of Fairfax, and Hon Lam Luk, 35, of Chantilly.

Pham’s six co-conspirators — Phan and Duong Nguyen, 29, of Springfield; his son Nguyen, 36, of Annandale; Dat Nguyen, 37 of Alexandria; Trieu Hoang, 39, of Springfield; and Luk — all previously entered guilty pleas in connection with the conspiracy and were sentenced, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The FBI’s Washington Field Office’s Hi-Tech Opioid Task Force, which includes special agents and inspectors from the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations and other federal and local police agency members, conducted the investigation.

“The task force is charged with identifying and investigating the most egregious Dark Web marketplaces, and the vendors operating on the marketplaces who are engaged in the illegal acquisition and distribution of controlled substances, to include fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other opioids,” the Justice Department said.

U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema accepted the plea agreement with Pham on Tuesday.