Now notorious Telegram app has been used in crimes in Eagle County
Gypsum resident used the messenger app to sell drugs to minors in 2022 and 2023, pled guilty in 2024
As the messenger service the BBC calls “The dark web in your pocket” continues to attract headlines around the globe, a recent criminal case reveals the application has been used in Eagle County to distribute drugs to minors.
Telegram Messenger CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France last week, accused of allowing drug trafficking, fraud and the spread of child sex abuse images to take place on his site.
Durov’s attorney said the suggestion that he should be held responsible for any crimes committed on the app is “absurd,” as the app has nearly 1 billion users.
Telegram describes itself as an instant messaging app with a “mission to provide the best security … encrypted using a combination of 256-bit symmetric AES encryption, 2048-bit RSA encryption, and Diffie–Hellman secure key exchange.”
In August, Gypsum resident Kathya Saenz-Hernandez, 22, received a 16-year suspended imposition sentence for selling drugs to minors using her Telegram account. The Gore Range Narcotics Interdiction Team (known as G.R.A.N.I.T.E.) dedicated “several months and over a hundred hours to the investigation,” according to the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office.
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The investigation began in March 2022 after a local mother contacted a school resource officer, saying her child “was acting crazy at home and was found to be in possession of mushrooms and LSD,” according to an arrest affidavit.
The mother told the school resource officer that her child had used a Telegram account to purchase the drugs, and showed the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office a video of a Telegram channel she had recorded.
“For sale on the Telegram channel were marijuana products, THC products, vapes, and cocaine,” according to the affidavit.
After more local students “confirmed that they had purchased drugs from this Telegram account holder, identified as Katy or Kathy,” G.R.A.N.I.T.E officers found a source who allowed an officer to access their Telegram account, which was one of Saenz-Hernandez’s 67 subscribers, according to the affidavit.
The account was accessed on Sept. 19, 2023.
“For sale on this date were marijuana and THC products, DMT, acid, and purple molly,” according to the affidavit. “The channel appeared operational and was actively posting for the sale of drugs.”
Saenz-Hernandez was arrested on Sept. 26 and pled guilty to distributing a controlled substance to a minor. She pled guilty and in August, she received a 16-year suspended imposition sentence.
A suspended imposition sentence allows judges to defer the imposition of a sentence upon a defendant found guilty of a crime, placing the defendant on probation instead. A violation of that probation can then result in the entire sentence being carried out.
