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One sentenced in Silk Road drug case

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Drug Enforcement Administration file photo of MDMA pills.

WATERLOO | A scheme to import illegal drugs using an underground Internet site has ended with prison for a Waterloo man.

Authorities said Adam Lawin, 25, ordered ecstasy pills, also known as MDMA, and the illicit drug Molly from Great Britain and Belgium using the Silk Road encrypted online marketplace and then distributed the drugs locally.

On Thursday, Judge Linda Reade sentenced Lawin, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute MDMA, to 12 years and three months in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release.

He was also ordered to pay a $100 special assessment, and the government is pursuing a $100,000 forfeiture action to claim drug sales proceeds.

According to prosecutors, Lawin bought MDMA using the drug trafficking marketplace website Silk Road. To avoid suspicion, he had the packages sent to friends or acquaintances and paid them with drugs or cash.

During an April 2013 search of Lawin’s home, officers with the Tri-County Drug Enforcement Task Force seized more than 1.3 kilograms of MDMA. They also found notes for manufacturing LSD and a draft of a book he was writing about using Bitcoin virtual currency to sell drugs, court records state. Authorities seized another 250 grams of MDMA destined for Lawin during related searches.

One the people Lawin allegedly used to accept MDMA shipments, 22-year-old Benjamin Walker, was sentenced to three years and seven months in prison May.