Bellevue programmer gave up $180k salary to deal drugs on Silk Road Online black market kingpin made nearly $1M in drug trade’s ‘new frontier’

A former computer programmer touted by prosecutors as one of the Seattle area’s most successful online drug dealers will spend five years in federal prison.

Hawking “fish scale cocaine” and black tar heroin on the Silk Road online black market, Steven Lloyd Sadler was one of the site’s top drug dealers, according to federal prosecutors in Seattle.

All that came crashing down in early 2013 when federal prosecutors sweeping up Silk Road charged Sadler and girlfriend Jenna M. White with drug offenses. Sadler, 41, and White, 22, later pleaded guilty.

Sadler was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday at U.S. District Court in Seattle. Prosecutors had asked that U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez sentence him to seven years in prison, two years more than the mandatory minimum sentence the judge imposed.

Addressing Sadler, Martinez said he is concerned that online dealers like those operating through Silk Road will sell to young people otherwise be unable to buy drugs.

“The court is troubled by this … very easy way (for young people) to slide into a business that’s going to lead to a dead end for most of them,” said Martinez, a longtime advocate of alternative courts meant to put drug-addicted offenders in treatment instead of prison.

“My concern is all those very young people who are looking at this, looking at you. … What would you tell these kids?” the judge asked Sadler.

“If you get in trouble with this, then you’re going to prison,” Sadler answered.

Sadler also reflected on the pain he’s seen in drug addicts he now shares space with at the SeaTac Federal Detention Center. He spoke of his own agony when he finally went through withdrawals after his arrest.

Photo: Department Of Justice Photo Dealing on Silk Road as "NOD," Bellevue computer programer Steven...

“I understand what was wrong with what I did,” he told Martinez, his words clipped and fast, showing the nervousness he felt while making a bid to avoid two additional years in prison.

Silk Road was launched in 2011 and shuttered in October 2013, when FBI agents arrested its founder, Ross Ulbricht and swept up the site. The site ran through a heavily encrypted system meant to hide identifying information about its users, who used Bitcoin online currency in transactions.

Photo: Spencer Platt, Getty Images Max Dickstein stands with other supporters of Ross Ulbricht, the...

Encryption and cyber-currency aside, Silk Road operated much like any other online store. Customers searched for items – usually illicit drugs – and had them shipped to them.

Arrested in San Francisco, Ulbricht was convicted of drug crimes following a trial before a federal jury in New York City. The agents who arrested Ulbricht appear to have been working independently from those who nabbed Sadler. Ulbricht is slated to be sentenced in May.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Woods described the Silk Road model as a dangerously convenient “new frontier” in drug dealing.

Photo: Department Of Justice Photo Dealing on Silk Road as "NOD," Bellevue computer programer Steven...

“The website expands the serious drug market to all reaches of the country, and indeed the world,” Woods said. “The website reaches those who are too apprehensive to conduct a deal on the street, or those, say in rural areas, who may not have a direct drug supplier.”

Sadler’s first 38 years alive had been clean. He had no legal trouble and a strong career with good income. He was living well on $180,000 a year.

Photo: Department Of Justice Photo Dealing on Silk Road as "NOD," Bellevue computer programer Steven...

Drugs were Sadler’s undoing, Woods said in court papers. He began using heavily three years ago and started dealing online under the username “NOD.” Soon he was among Silk Road’s top 1 percent of sellers.

Investigators claimed Sadler sold 8¼ pounds of cocaine, three pounds of heroin and four ounces of methamphetamine. Those drug sales netted him nearly $1 million; he made $70,000 a month in cocaine sales alone.

Photo: Spencer Platt, Getty Images Supporters of Ross Ulbricht, the alleged creator and operator of...

As Sadler’s business grew, he turned to White for help. Just out of her teens, White lived with Sadler while packaging and delivering drugs for him.

A post office worker took down the Redmond woman’s license plate number during one delivery in late 2012. Investigators identified Sadler as “NOD” and searched his Bellevue apartment in July 2013.

Photo: Spencer Platt, Getty Images Supporters of Ross Ulbricht, the alleged creator and operator of...

Inside, agents found pounds of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine hidden in the apartment ceiling. They also seized a .45 cal. pistol.

Arrested Oct. 2, 2013, Sadler pleaded guilty the following May to drug offenses. Federal Public Defender Michael Filipovic said his client has nothing to show for his years as a drug dealer.

Photo: Spencer Platt, Getty Images Supporters of Ross Ulbricht, the alleged creator and operator of...

“He blew through all that money using drugs and going to strip clubs,” Filipovic told Martinez.

Speaking Thursday, Filipovic argued that an additional two years in prison wouldn’t aid Sadler in his rehabilitation or dissuade anyone from making similar mistakes. Sadler is committed to sobriety, the public defender said, and won’t be back in front of a judge again.

Photo: Spencer Platt, Getty Images NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 13: Supporters of Ross Ulbricht, the...

Woods described Sadler as an unusually successful drug dealer indifferent to the pain of drug addiction. The prosecutor also faulted Sadler for luring White – a near adolescent “some 20 years his junior,” Woods noted – into his business.

Currently jailed, Sadler is expected to be transferred to a federal Bureau of Prisons facility in coming weeks. White is scheduled to be sentenced next month, while charges against another Seattle-area defendant in the Silk Road matter, Brian Farrell, remain unresolved.

Seattlepi.com reporter Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 orlevipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk.