Sam Bent, of East Burke, Vermont, ran a dark web drug distribution operation from 2017 to April 2018, selling cocaine, LSD, MDMA, and marijuana in exchange for Bitcoin and mailing the substances from post offices in Vermont and New Hampshire, working with his cousin Djeneba Bent. He was convicted on August 2, 2019, of three counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances over the dark web, and was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, and ordered to forfeit $14,000. Djeneba Bent received 3 years of probation for her lesser role.
While incarcerated, Bent became a paralegal and used research from the prison law library to file his own compassionate-release motion, which succeeded in reducing his sentence to 18 months served; he later published a guide for federal inmates on writing compassionate-release motions. Since his release, Bent has described himself as an OSINT and OPSEC specialist and darknet expert, running the YouTube channel and podcast "DoingFedTime" focused on information security, dark web topics, and federal prison life, and has spoken at conferences including DEF CON and SANS.
