Recently unsealed court documents from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio revealed that Ryan D. Kluth—a 47-year-old from Marion County—ordered fentanyl from the darknet for an unusual reason. He told investigators that he had been ordering fentanyl and carfentanil from China in an effort to curb his desire to access child abuse content.
In October 2017, the Cleveland Postal Inspection Service Field Office received a package from a Marion County postal service center. The package had raised flags and instead of sending the package to Kluth, the postal service management sent it to the increasingly skilled postal inspectors. On October 5, postal inspectors opened the package and found a bag that contained a white powder. USPIS then securely transported the unidentified powder to the Cuyahoga County Forensic Laboratory. The lab identified the powder as furanylfentanyl.
An affidavit signed by Postal Inspector Bryon Green revealed that the USPIS field office and the forensic laboratory agreed upon the weight of the furanylfentanyl. It weighed 0.09 grams. Green, after confirming that the package contained an illegal substance, spoke with the postal carrier who frequently delivered mail to the address Kluth had given the darknet vendor. The postal carrier said that she often delivered packages to Kluth’s place of employment—Alloway Environmental Testing—but had never actually met Kluth. Other employees signed packages for him. The carrier confirmed that Kluth received a number of packages from Canada and China.
Alloway Environmental Testing no longer employs Kluth.
Green, according to the affidavit, interviewed Kluth on October 11, 2017. Kluth allegedly admitted that he had been ordering both fentanyl and carfentanil on the darknet. The packages were always delivered at his former place of employment or at his Columbus home, Kluth said. During the interview, Kluth consented to searches of his electronic devices. Investigators found evidence that led them to believe that Kluth had made dozens of purchases on the darknet. Between August and September alone, Kluth purchased carfentanil and fentanyl nine times. In February 2017, he allegedly placed an order for one gram of fentanyl. He denied ever selling the drug though.
He explained that he only used it to curb his appetite for the child abuse content he had found on the darknet. In addition to the history of drug purchases, the electronic devices contained thousands of illegal pictures. Investigators found more than 1,000 pictures and videos of child abuse and almost 30,000 “exploitive” pictures or videos. Kluth’s iPad and computers allegedly proved that they had been used to access a well-known child abuse forum on the darknet.
Kluth said that he had never uploaded a picture of his own. He also said that he had not touched or abused a child in his life. According to his own statement, the “cravings” vanished after he had started using fentanyl and carfentanil again (about one year prior to his arrest). He must have had a significant amount of faith in the fentanyl-based abstinence; during the investigation, postal workers kept intercepting packages. Even on the day of his arrest, law enforcement seized packages and retrieved them from mailboxes that belonged to Kluth.
A criminal complaint filed in March accused Kluth of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute; to distribute controlled substances; attempted possession controlled substances with intent to distribute; possession of child pornography; and receipt of child pornography. No court date has been made public.