Following a succession of failed entrepreneurial ventures, a California woman established a “Door Dash-style” drug delivery service in the Bay Area, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent.
According to court filings, Natalie Marie Gonzalez offered a range of narcotics to students and “young professionals” in Silicon Valley, encouraging consumers who ordered from her web menu to buy in bulk.
According to prosecutors, she ran her service, “The Shop,” over Signal, an encrypted chat network.
Gonzalez is now headed to prison for her operation, which included people employed as delivery drivers and a dog used to make drug transactions appear more “casual,” according to authorities.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, on April 18, a federal judge sentenced Gonzalez, 31, of Oakland, to four years and two months in prison for conspiracy to distribute a mixture and substance containing methamphetamine.
She is represented by her defense attorney, David W. Rizk.
Gonzalez pled guilty to the allegation on September 13, after prosecutors claimed she sold large quantities of “Adderall” pills to an undercover DEA agent.
According to prosecutors, the pills contained methamphetamine, not Adderall. Adderall, a prescription ADHD and narcolepsy medicine, contains a combination of amphetamine and dextroamphetamine, not methamphetamine.
Prior to Gonzalez’s sentencing, prosecutors contended that she “enjoyed substantial advantages in life” as a result of a “comfortable upbringing,” and that she later earned a degree from Stanford University.
Gonzalez set out from 2019 to 2021 to initiate several commercial “ventures that ‘either flopped or dissipated due to the COVID-19 pandemic,'” prosecutors noted in the government’s sentencing brief.
“Instead of using her intelligence and her social connections to obtain lawful employment or to continue striving to succeed as an entrepreneur, she created a Silicon Valley drug delivery service to enrich herself,” according to the sentencing document.
Rizk, representing Gonzalez, stated in a sentencing memorandum that her story is “highly unusual.” He stated that Gonzalez was nurtured in an atmosphere where recreational psychedelic drug use was popular, and she grew up “free-spirited and developed holistic interests” in the Colorado Rockies. Rizk describes her parents as hippies.
Gonzalez resided in a student co-op at Stanford, where she investigated the medicinal possibilities of psychedelic compounds, according to Rizk.
Rizk stated that she planned to sell chemicals, primarily psychedelics, in a safe manner with the goal of eventually making enough money to purchase land and construct a “spiritual retreat center.”
Rizk claims she grew “increasingly misguided” as she began selling other substances.
Gonzalez, according to investigators, operated her drug delivery operation for around six months, from April to September 2023. She employed three co-defendants, who are suspected of providing methamphetamine pills, cocaine, and other narcotics to consumers, according to court documents.
According to authorities, Gonzalez demanded clients to pay at least $300 for drug deliveries in the Bay Area or to get their orders via mail.
Gonzalez accepted both cash and cryptocurrencies as payment, according to authorities. According to prosecutors, Gonzalez sold methamphetamine many times to an undercover DEA agent acting as a customer. Gonzalez used the nickname “Soter” when arranging sales via Signal, according to authorities.
According to a DEA special agent’s affidavit, Gonzalez messaged the undercover agent before one transaction in June 2023, stating that one of her drivers would deliver cocaine to them in a black vehicle.
Agents executed a search warrant at a property Gonzalez used for her drug delivery operation, which prosecutors described as a “stash house,” on September 13, 2023.
The agents discovered fentanyl, cocaine, and “orange fake Adderall pills” laced with methamphetamine and ketamine, according to prosecutors.
In addition to the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson sentenced Gonzalez to three years of supervised release. One of her co-defendants was sentenced to four years in prison, according to court records.
