JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Federal prosecutors say a Missouri man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for trying to buy a chemical weapon on the dark web as part of a plot to kill a woman who had broken up with him.
Federal prosecutors for Missouri said in a news release that 46-year-old Jason William Siesser, of Columbia, was sentenced Tuesday.
Last year, Siesser pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to acquire a chemical weapon and one count of aggravated identity theft.
Investigators say Siesser tried twice in 2018 to buy chemical dimethylmercury using bitcoin.
He is accused of placing the order in the name of a juvenile, but authorities say he was the person who accepted the package he thought contained the chemical.
Federal prosecutors say Siesser ordered three 10 mL units of the chemical weapon. This quantity of the chemical weapon has the capacity to kill around 300 people.