FORT WORTH, Texas - A New Jersey man who used dark web marketplaces and the U.S. mail to distribute oxycodone to customers across North Texas and throughout the country has been sentenced to nearly 14 years in federal prison.
Samad Hamid Castro, 41, was sentenced to 164 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Mark T. Pittman, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas announced Aug. 13.
Castro pleaded guilty April 1 to distribution of a controlled substance.
According to plea documents, Castro admitted that between October 2023 and August 2025 he possessed and mailed packages containing oxycodone to customers in Fort Worth, Keller, Euless, Hurst, Mansfield, Watauga and Weatherford, as well as other locations.
Federal prosecutors said Castro operated as a seller on online dark web marketplaces.
Investigators linked a shipping account associated with Castro to nearly 4,000 packages sent to more than 1,000 customers across 48 states and the District of Columbia by September 2025, according to the criminal complaint.
A search of Castro's New Jersey residence uncovered more than 24,000 OxyContin pills in various dosages, authorities said.
Investigators found many of the pills mixed together and concealed inside bags of Polish-branded breakfast cereal. Others were stored in large prescription-style containers.
As part of his guilty plea, Castro agreed to forfeit more than $700,000 in cryptocurrency, more than $10,000 in cash and a 2025 Toyota Grand Highlander Limited. Castro admitted the assets were proceeds from or derived from his drug trafficking.
"Samad Castro's opioid trafficking enterprise flooded dangerous pills into North Texas neighborhoods," U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould said, crediting federal investigators with dismantling a distribution network that used the dark web and mail system.
The DEA's Fort Worth District Office and U.S. Postal Inspection Service's Fort Worth Division investigated the case with assistance from DEA and postal inspectors in New Jersey.
Castro will serve his 164-month sentence without the possibility of parole in the federal system.
