Our correspondent Andreas Frank writes:  Steven Sadler, 40, pleaded guilty to using the online black market Silk Road to sell a swath of illegal drugs in a Seattle federal courtroom on Thursday. With the help of his one-time girlfriend, Jenna White, Sadler used the Silk Road name “Nod” to peddled 3,721 grams of cocaine, 1,375 grams of heroin, and 119 grams of methamphetamine, according to court documents.

When law enforcement raided his home on July 31 of last year, Sadler had more than a kilogram each of cocaine and of heroin, and more than 400 grams of methamphetamine.

After operating for the better part of three years, the FBI shut down Silk Road and arrested its alleged owner, Ross Ulbricht, last October. Investigators say the site had hundreds of thousands of users and facilitated millions of illicit transactions.

Sadler’s guilty plea is the third from a high-profile Silk Road dealer within the last four weeks. On April 24, Cornelis Jan Slomp, a 22-year-old from the Netherlands, accepted guilt for being “the world’s largest drug-trafficking vendor on Silk Road,” as prosecutors put it. Slomp used the nickname “SuperTrips,” and he primarily sold MDMA and ecstasy pills. On May 13,Angel William Quinones, 34, a partner multi-millionaire Dutch drug dealer Cornelis Jan “SuperTrips” Slomp pleaded guilty.

Unlike Slomp, Sadler’s plea agreement does not indicate that he is expected to cooperate with law enforcement in any other Silk Road investigations. Sadler has, however, already spent months helping federal investigators build a case against Silk Road’s owner, who used the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts.”

For Sadler’s guilty plea, the government agreed to drop four of the five counts on the indictment, leaving him with just one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine. Sadler faces anywhere from five to 40 years in prison and a fine of up to $5 million. His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 4.