LOS ANGELES
A Glendale man was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in federal prison for his involvement in “NoLove,” a darknet-based organization that trafficked methamphetamine and Ecstasy domestically and internationally, officials stated.
He also laundered the organization’s drug proceeds by converting bitcoin into U.S. dollars.
U.S. District Judge André Birotte Jr. sentenced Arbi Setaghaian Sangbarani, 41.
After a five-day trial in December 2023, a jury found Sangbarani guilty of one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and MDMA, commonly known as Ecstasy.
The jury also found Sangbarani guilty of one count of money laundering conspiracy and two counts of money laundering.
From at least April 2019 to May 2020, Sangbarani was a member of a darknet drug trafficking organization that sold, packaged and mailed methamphetamine and MDMA to numerous customers in the United States and internationally.
He conspired with several members of the darknet drug trafficking organization known as “NoLove.” NoLove operated for around a year and a half and shipped drugs internationally and across the United States.
As part of the conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and MDMA, Sangbarani and his co-conspirators obtained the drugs from suppliers, stored them at a residence in the Sunland-Tujunga area of Los Angeles, and managed their sales on the dark web in exchange for virtual currency.
They also packaged the drugs for distribution to customers who ordered them on the darknet.
Once the packages were complete, Sangbarani and his co-conspirators mailed parcels containing meth and MDMA to customers who ordered the drugs on the dark web.
Sangbarani also conspired to launder the illicit proceeds of the drug trafficking operation. One of Sangbarani’s accomplices collected bitcoin as proceeds from the sale of drugs on the dark web.
That co-conspirator then transferred a portion of those virtual currency proceeds to Sangbarani. Sangbarani exchanged the bitcoin into U.S. dollars, transferred the dollars to his bank account, and withdrew the proceeds as cash.
This was the first time the government has introduced evidence involving cryptocurrency tracing for dark web markets in a jury trial in this district. In total, federal prosecutors have secured eight convictions in connection with this conspiracy.
In February 2020, at the Sunland-Tujunga residence, law enforcement seized about 6,701 suspected MDMA pills and about 48.9 pounds of methamphetamine from a shed on the property.
The FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated this matter.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph S. Guzman and Alexandra M. Michael, both of the General Crimes Section, prosecuted this case.