Ex-Pro Skateboarder Sentenced for Selling Methamphetamine and Laundering Bitcoin Drug Proceeds

Evan Jaime Hernandez, 35, pleaded guilty in the case last year.

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What to Know

  • Evan Jaime Hernandez conspired with drug dealers to distribute narcotics over one of the world's largest darknet marketplaces, court documents say.
  • Hernandez sold about 2 pounds of methamphetamine for $5,000 to an individual whom he thought was a money launderer, but who was working with federal law enforcement at the time, officials said in a news release.
  • Hernandez conducted four Bitcoin-to-cash exchanges totaling about $171,300, officials said.

A former professional skateboarder from Long Beach was sentenced this week to just over eight years in federal prison for selling methamphetamine and laundering Bitcoin, prosecutors said.

Evan Jaime Hernandez, 35, pleaded guilty in the case last year.

Court documents say Hernandez conspired with drug dealers to distribute narcotics over one of the world's largest darknet marketplaces from March 2018 to March 2019.

Hernandez sold about 2 pounds of methamphetamine for $5,000 to an individual whom he thought was a money launderer, but who was working with federal law enforcement at the time, officials said in a news release.

Hernandez conducted four Bitcoin-to-cash exchanges totaling about $171,300, officials said.

A search warrant of a location controlled by one of Hernandez's associates in 2019 turned up about 15 pounds of methamphetamine, officials said in a news release. He was also ordered to forfeit a 2010 Mercedes-Benz, about $35,000 in cash, and jewelry.

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"[Hernandez] was involved in a highly sophisticated drug trafficking operation, where he personally took on various roles to ensure its success: obtaining multiple types of narcotics, selling them directly to customers, and laundering money on the backend in a sophisticated manner," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

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