Bought drugs on dark web police say

An East Stroudsburg University student has been accused of selling LSD from his dorm room, a statement form the Monroe County Drug Task Force said.

On Wednesday, May 4, members of the task force conducted a search warrant on a dorm room inside Lenape Hall on ESU’s campus in East Stroudsburg. An investigation began after a tip that ESU student Michael Mancini, 20, of Landenberg, was ordering Lysergic acid diethylamide on the dark web and selling it to other students out of his dorm room.

The dark web is a part of the World Wide Web that uses the public Internet, but isn’t indexed by search engines and typically needs special software to access.

In mid-April, ESU University police took a complaint from an informant that stated Mancini was ordering LSD on the dark web, using some himself and selling the rest to other students on campus. The informant also told police that Mancini showed him how to order a hit man on the dark web.

The resident director for Lenape Hall at ESU facilitated the report between the informant and police. The resident director assisted police in the investigation by looking closely at the mail that was coming into the dorms. On Tuesday, May 3, the resident director called ESU Police Chief William Parrish and told him that a package had arrived for Mancini from Hawaii, which she thought was suspicious.

Parrish reached out to the Monroe County Drug Task Force for their assistance in the investigation. Detectives from the drug task force took immediate action knowing that Mancini was patiently waiting for his shipment of LSD to arrive, the task force statement said.

Monroe County District Attorney Narcotics detective Kim Lippincott obtained a search warrant to open the package. Once it was opened, detectives found a plastic bag containing collectors cards, similar to Pokemon cards, that were sealed in a plastic baggie which had a sticker labeled “MINT CONDITION.” When detectives opened the plastic baggie, in between two cards, they located perforated paper, which when field-tested was found to be saturated with LSD.

The LSD came in a small two-inch by two-inch square which contained 25 "hits," or small perforated squares which contained the drug LSD.

Detectives followed up with a search warrant for the dorm room where Mancini resides. The warrant was executed by members of the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office, Drug Task Force members and the East Stroudsburg University Police. When they entered the room they found Michael Mancini, sitting at his computer.

Mancini was taken into custody. Detectives seized his computer, cell phone, money and items of drug paraphernalia.

When Mancini was interviewed after being advised of his Miranda rights, he confessed to purchasing LSD on the dark web and selling it to approximately eight other students at ESU, the press release says.

Detectives learned that Mancini used “bit coins,” a type of online currency, to purchase the LSD. He used The Onion Router, also known as Tor, to access the dark web and complete the purchase. Tor is a specialized software program that directs traffic through a worldwide volunteer network in order to conceal a user’s activity from others. The Tor network is a part of the dark web.

Mancini was arrested and charged with possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, criminal use of a communication facility, both felonies, and several misdemeanor offenses including possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

He told investigators that the first time he bought LSD he had it delivered to him at ESU and that package contained 10 hits. He used two himself, he said, and sold the rest to his friends, also ESU students for $9 each. He also said the second time that he ordered LSD was recently and he expected to receive the package May 4 or May 5. He said he ordered 25 hits of LSD and arranged via cell phone to meet with his friends and distribute them.

Mancini was taken to the Monroe County Correctional Facility where he was arraigned and bail was set at an unsecured amount. He was released and will appear before Magistrate Michael Muth at a later date.

The investigation into the company from Hawaii listed as a return address on the package is ongoing.