A Dundalk man who bought fake money on the dark web and tried to use it at grocery stores in Pennsylvania has been sentenced to prison for a little more than two years, officials said Friday.

Jason Christian Evans, 51, used fake currency and Federal Reserve notes to buy items from at least five Weis Markets and Giant Food Stores, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland.

He did this in late January, prosecutors said, just after he had finished serving another sentence for bank fraud. Evans violated the terms of his supervised release by crossing into Pennsylvania.

Authorities arrested Evans in April while executing a search warrant at his home in Dundalk.

Advertise with us

According to the release, law enforcement officers seized five computers, two cellphones and multiple counterfeit detecting pens. A subsequent forensic analysis of his devices turned up several zip files containing information on how to age phony currency and a video tutorial on avoiding counterfeit pen detection.

Evans confessed to the crime and disclosed he bought the bogus money on the dark web on a site called Abacus Market, the release said.