RIVERSIDE, NY — A Centereach woman has been sentenced to serve 15 years in a state prison followed by five years post-release supervision in connection with selling drugs from her home over the dark web, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney's office said Thursday.
Carolyn Tolin, 46, pleaded guilty in November to first-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and attempted operating as a major trafficker.
Patch has reached out to her attorney, Ian Fitzgerald of Central Islip, for comment.
Tierney said she "exploited technology to run a deadly narcotics enterprise."
"Her resourcefulness and business acumen could have led to legitimate success, but instead she chose to poison our community and believed she could outsmart the law,” he said. “That calculation proved wrong, and she will now face the consequences in prison.”
Between September 2024 and March 2025, Tolin sold more than $75,000 worth of cocaine, fentanyl, and heroin, leading her narcotics operation through her dark web vendor site, MamaKnowsBrown, according to prosecutors.
Through MamaKnowsBrown, Tolin offered heroin, fentanyl, crack cocaine, and powder cocaine to customers both locally and nationwide, allowing clients multiple shipping options and the opportunity to give feedback and reviews of each product, prosecutors said.
After receiving an order, Tolin arranged for the narcotics to be shipped through the United States Postal Service, or UPS, to clients across the country, prosecutors said, adding that Tolin used Uber to deliver products locally within Suffolk County and received payment for these sales in the form of cryptocurrency, which she would convert to cash.
On March 14, 2025, law enforcement executed a search warrant at her Centereach home, and within the garage, found large amounts of fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine, and in its garage, there was computer equipment, cell phones, packages in the process of being prepared for shipment, additional envelopes, packaging materials, a heat sealer, a digital scale, and her signature overdose warning cards, according to prosecutors.
Source: https://patch.com/new-york/sachem/15-years-centereach-woman-who-hawked-drugs-her-home-using-dark-web-da
