Dark Web Drug Dealer Looking at Life in Prison

SAN DIEGO (CN) — A 39-year-old San Diegan faces 10 years to life in federal prison and millions of dollars in forfeitures after pleading guilty Monday to conspiring to deliver dangerous drugs through the internet’s Dark Web, including fentanyl, ketamine, oxycodone, amphetamine, and enough carfentanil to kill everyone in Newport Beach.

Sky Justin Gornik faces a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence for his guilty pleas to conspiring to deliver illegal drugs through the internet, conspiring to launder money, and two counts of criminal forfeiture, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Gornik admitted he bought and dealt drugs in the three years before he was arrested in June 2017. Fentanyl has been linked to hundreds of deaths in heroin users, and carfentanil is 100 times more potent — 500 times more potent than heroin. Its original, legitimate use was as an elephant tranquilizer.

Agents seized 1.7 grams of carfentanil inside Gornik’s home when they busted him on June 7, 2017, the U.S. attorney said, adding: “The 1.722 grams of carfentanil seized in Gornik’s residence could equate to over 86,000 fatal dosages” — the entire population of Newport Beach or Chico.

“A speck of carfentanil the size of a grain of sand can kill you,” U.S. Attorney Adam Braverman said in a statement. “And Dark Web vendors beware: Your cryptocurrencies are not safe from seizure.”

Gornik admitted he bought and sold “thousands of vials” of the aforementioned illegal drugs, and others, including dimethyltryptamine, ecstasy and psilocybin, using false screen names and “a variety of digital currencies.”

He must forfeit at least 69 bitcoins and other digital currencies, according to the superseding criminal information filed Tuesday.

Gornik will be sentenced to at least 10 years in prison on July 16.

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