Butte County couple ensnared in Silk Road 2.0 drug case

A Northern California couple were indicted on federal drug charges stemming from the investigation into the underground drug-dealing website Silk Road 2.0, which the government shut down this month while arresting its alleged operator.

David and Teri Schell, who are 54 and 59, respectively, were charged Thursday with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana and possession with intent to distribute the drug. The Butte County couple are accused of growing hundreds of marijuana plants in their home and shipping packages of processed pot in the mail, federal prosecutors said.

Investigators said they began to suspect the couple after discovering an Internet Protocol address was accessing the Silk Road 2.0 site, which was a drug marketplace with a format similar to Amazon and eBay. They allegedly traced the Internet use back to the couple’s home in Durham, a small town about 10 miles south of Chico.

Officials began surveilling the couple and found they were sending packages out of a UPS store in Chico through a P.O. box registered to Teri Schell and two fake businesses, “Outdoor Living ENT” and “A Touch of Class.” On Oct. 21, agents intercepted nine packages containing marijuana that David Schell had sent via U.S. mail, according to prosecutors.

Agents from the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided the couple’s home Nov. 6, the same day the Silk Road 2.0 website was shut down. They reported finding 482 marijuana plants, more than $12,000 in cash, “marijuana wax,” pot seeds and shipping materials.

David Schell mailed more than 100 packages, both within the U.S. and overseas, between January and September of this year, using a variety of return addresses, prosecutors said.

Both Teri and David Schell are out of custody and scheduled for arraignment Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Sacramento. Teri Schell, reached at home Thursday evening, declined to comment.