A Centereach woman has pleaded guilty to running a narcotics business over the dark web out of her home.
Carolyn Tolin used the United States Postal Service (USPS), United Parcel Service (UPS) and Uber to send narcotics, including fentanyl, to customers in Suffolk County and throughout the country in exchange for payment in the form of cryptocurrency.
From September 2024 to March 2025, Tolin possessed and sold over $75,000 worth of cocaine, fentanyl, and heroin. She led her narcotics operation through her dark web vendor site MamaKnowsBrown. Through the site, Tolin offered these illicit drugs to customers, both locally and nationwide. Tolin would also allow customers multiple shipping options and the opportunity to give feedback and reviews of each product.
After receiving an order, Tolin arranged for the narcotics to be shipped through the USPS or UPS to customers across the country. Tolin used Uber to deliver products locally within Suffolk County and received payment for these sales in the form of cryptocurrency, which she would convert to cash.
Within each package that she mailed or delivered, Tolin included an overdose warning card to the customer, detailing the potency and danger of the narcotics she sold. In the overdose card, Tolin warned her customers that her product could be deadly and cautioned to have Narcan on hand when using. Narcan is a nasal spray used to reverse the effects of a life-threatening opioid overdose. Tolin also warned users not to use the products alone and cautioned that, because of the potency, the narcotics were meant for experienced, long-term users only.
On March 14, 2025, members of law enforcement executed a search warrant at Tolin’s Centereach residence and within the garage, recovered large amounts of fentanyl, heroin and cocaine. Also, within the garage, law enforcement recovered computer equipment, cell phones, packages in the process of being prepared for shipment, as well as additional envelopes, packaging materials, a heat sealer, a digital scale and Tolin’s signature overdose warning cards.
On November 20, 2025, Tolin, 46, pleaded guilty to one count of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the First Degree, a Class A-1 felony, and one count of Attempted Operating as a Major Trafficker, a Class B felony, before Acting Supreme Court Justice Richard I. Horowitz.
Tolin faces 15 years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision. Tolin has been in custody since her arrest in March and, following the plea, was remanded without bail. Tolin is due back in court on January 8, 2026.
“The scale of the operation that this defendant ran out of her Centereach garage is astounding,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney. “I want to thank the investigators and prosecutors on this case for uncovering this sophisticated operation and bringing this defendant to justice. Let it be known, anyone distributing or possessing these dangerous poisons will be fully investigated and prosecuted.”