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A New Jersey man was sentenced to 135 months in federal prison after using Telegram and the dark web to sell fentanyl.
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During a search of his two homes in Kearny, officers recovered over 360 grams of fentanyl powder, fake M30 pills, drug ledgers, and many devices.
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The case is part of a broader operation led by a new Homeland Security Task Force initiative involving authorities from Portland, Newark, and Houston.
34-year-old Mark T. Eager, who hails from New Jersey, got sentenced last Friday in Portland, Oregon. The reason? He ran a dark web drug operation that poisoned communities across America.
Brief Details of the Case
Eager sold his poison under the username WRSEH10. He marketed his fentanyl under the name “China White Synthetic Heroin.”
From November 2023 to June 2024, Eager ran this illegal drug operation with a partner who was also assisting him with distributing the drugs to customers via the darknet and Telegram messaging app.
Later, on the 4th of September 2024, Eager was indicted by a federal grand jury in Portland on four counts of conspiracy to sell fentanyl. On February 4 this year, he entered a guilty plea to the conspiracy count. He was then sentenced to 135 months in prison sentence.
The Raid that Shut Him Down
Agents from Homeland Security obtained warrants to raid two homes that Eager owned in Kearny, New Jersey. What do they find? Large portions of fentanyl, about 360 grams in total. And as if that wasn’t enough, they found fake M30 pills too. M30 tablets usually look like legit prescription meds, but they’re often laced with deadly doses of fentanyl.
Drug ledgers showed how much poison he moved. Cellular phones and two computers gave investigators his digital footprint. Packaging materials matched three separate deliveries sent straight to Oregon.
That last part mattered most. The physical evidence linked Eager directly to real victims in Portland.
A Nationwide Hunt for One Dealer
U.S. Attorney Scott E. Bradford said Eager showed absolutely no regard for human life. His office led the prosecution in the District of Oregon.
The investigation wasn’t a local job. It pulled together agents from HSI Portland, HSI Newark, and HSI Houston. The Portland Police Bureau helped too. So did the HIDTA Interdiction Task Force.
Acting Special Agent in Charge April Miller from HSI Seattle put it bluntly. “No matter where you are in the country or the world, if you attempt to sell narcotics online to Americans, we will find you.”
International cooperation is key in dark web enforcement. New Zealand police recently arrested 11 individuals in a major dark web drug syndicate raid, highlighting the global nature of these operations.
HSI Newark’s acting chief Spiros Karabinas talked about following the digital trail. His team helped execute those New Jersey search warrants. They dismantled an active dark web fentanyl packaging operation.
HSI Houston Special Agent in Charge Lucia Cabral-DeArmas called this a team effort under the Homeland Security Task Force. That initiative started with Executive Order 14159. The goal? To shut down criminal cartels and all transnational organizations.
What Eager’s Sentence Means
Eager will be behind bars for 11 years and 3 months. After that? He’s still not free. He’s got five more years on supervised release, meaning Big Brother is definitely watching.
The prosecutor for this one was Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Kerin. And shoutout to the U.S. Attorney’s Office over in New Jersey, they pitched in by getting the search warrants for Kearny. Teamwork makes the dream work, apparently.
This case falls under the Homeland Security Task Force or HSTF. The Portland office involves the FBI, DEA, ATF, U.S. Marshals, Customs and Border Protection, and many other groups.
The Oregon-Idaho HIDTA program chipped in with cash and helped organize everything. HIDTA means High – Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, basically, it’s a mouthful for a national anti-drug effort under the White House.
Eager thought Telegram and the Dark Net would protect him. They didn’t. His computers, phones, and packaging materials told the whole story.
Now he’s going to federal prison. And 11 years gives him plenty of time to think about whether selling poison to strangers was worth it.
