As a moderator on AlphaBay, Herrell, who went by the nicknames “Penissmith” and “Botah,” settled disputes between vendors and purchasers, the DOJ said. He also served as a “scam watcher,” keeping a lookout for any attempts to defraud AlphaBay users. For his efforts, the Aurora, Colorado, resident was paid in Bitcoin.

The website—an outgrowth of earlier darknet site Silk Road, only 10 times larger—saw its final days in 2017 after nearly three years of operation. A law enforcement operation spanning three countries dismantled the site, with Canadian police seizing its servers in Quebec, and U.S. officials seeking the extradition of one of its administrators, Alexandre Cazes, to the U.S.