Riverhead, NY – Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced Thursday that Carolyn Tolin, 46, of Centereach, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for operating a large-scale narcotics business known online as MamaKnowsBrown, which trafficked fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine to customers nationwide through the dark web.
According to prosecutors, from September 2024 to March 2025, Tolin ran an organized drug distribution network from her Centereach home. Through her dark web vendor account, she sold more than $75,000 worth of illegal narcotics, offering customers multiple shipping options and even allowing product reviews. Payments were accepted in cryptocurrency, which she later converted into cash.
Investigators said Tolin arranged shipments of drugs across the United States using postal carriers, while also coordinating local deliveries within Suffolk County using rideshare services. On March 14, 2025, law enforcement executed a search warrant at her residence, where they recovered significant quantities of fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine, along with packaging materials, a digital scale, computers, and phones used in the operation.
“This defendant exploited technology to run a deadly narcotics enterprise,” District Attorney Tierney said. “Her business acumen could have led to legitimate success, but instead she chose to poison our community. That calculation proved wrong, and she will now face the consequences in prison.”
Tolin pleaded guilty on November 20, 2025, 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. She was sentenced on January 22 to 15 years in prison, followed by five years of post-release supervision.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Kristin Barnes and Matthew Laube of the Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau, with investigative work by Richard Pedigo of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office and the District Attorney’s Fentanyl Task Force.
Key Points: Centereach woman sentenced to 15 years for running dark web drug network “MamaKnowsBrown” – Riverhead
- Carolyn Tolin, 46, of Centereach, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for operating the dark web drug operation “MamaKnowsBrown.”
- Investigators found fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine at her home, along with computer equipment and shipping materials.
- District Attorney Tierney said Tolin’s use of technology to distribute narcotics “poisoned the community” and earned her a lengthy prison term.