Frenchman in US for beard contest pleads guilty to helping run global drug bazaar, faces 20-year sentence

A Frenchman arrested when he arrived in the United States for a world beard-growing championship pleaded guilty in Miami federal court Tuesday to participating in worldwide online illicit drug sales using the alias “OxyMonster.”

Gal Vallerius, 36, pleaded guilty to drug distribution conspiracy and money laundering charges. Vallerius admitted he first sold and then began orchestrating online sales of cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, oxycodone and other drugs on a dark website known as the Dream Market.

Court documents describe Dream Market as one of the largest criminal sites where anonymous buyers and sellers do transactions using bitcoin and other virtual currencies. Three days before Vallerius was arrested in August 2017, authorities say there were more than 94,000 listings on Dream Market – including some 47,000 illegal drug listings.

Vallerius, who sports a long brownish-red beard, was already under investigation by the US Drug Enforcement Administration when he was detained at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport while en route from Paris to the World Beard and Moustache Championships in Austin, Texas. He had entered the full-beard category.

At the hearing, Vallerius admitted he initially began as a Dream Market vendor selling oxycodone and Ritalin using the “OxyMonster” name. Then he was hired to act as an administrator and moderator of Dream Market to facilitate the illegal transactions, according to court documents.

“Guilty,” Vallerius, who is from the Brittany region of France, said in Hebrew through a court interpreter.

Undercover DEA agents made numerous purchases through Dream Market of drugs such as crystal methamphetamine, LSD and hydrocodone. The drugs were shipped via mail to various addresses in the Miami area.