Jason Chen, a 34-year-old man in Norwich, Connecticut, pleaded guilty in a Hartford district court and received three years of probation for his position in scheming to manufacture fake Xanax pills and anabolic steroids, and use the dark web to sell the controlled substances.
Furthermore, Chen likewise is to serve the initial three months of the judge’s ruling in house arrest.
The fake Xanax pills and anabolic steroids were sold in AlphaBay, a dark web marketplace that was later seized in 2017.
William Fusco, 34, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, also pleaded guilty to his role in the operation and was sentenced to 20 months in prison with three years of supervised release.
Manufacturing Fake Xanax & Steroids
According to the Department of Justice, Fusco planned to have the chemicals needed to manufacture Xanax and steroids transported to Chen’s home.
On a few events, Fusco made a trip to Chen’s home to blend synthetics and press synthetic concoctions, inclusive of Alprazolam powder into Xanax tablets.
This is because he paid Chen to keep up two pill presses at Chen’s living arrangement and assist Fusco to produce and circulate the fake Xanax and steroids to Fusco’s clients.
Fusco emailed Chen messages that demonstrated the item, amount and street number of every client, just as a connection for Chen to tap on to get a prepaid delivery mark that compared to the request.
Chen copied the prepaid transportation marks, bundled the controlled substances, connected the names onto the relating bundles, and after that dropped the bundles into different blue U.S. Postal Service pickup boxes.
For a while, Chen dispatched roughly 30 bundles per week. Chen was paid by Fusco somewhere in the range of $10 to $20 for every bundle in Bitcoin.
Arrest & Search Warrants
A court-approved a search warrant of Chen’s home uncovered two mechanical machines for creating pills and tablets, apparatus and color molds, an electric powder blender/container, roughly 65,100 Xanax tablets, more than 700 grams of Alprazolam powder, around 12,000 steroid cases, exceeding 321/100ml fluid steroid vials, and over $8,000 in cash.
In June 2017, authorities conducted a search of Fusco’s residence and uncovered dye molds, electronic weighing scales, chemistry equipment, pill cases, steroid bottle tops, different items utilized to operate and bundle controlled substances, ammo, guns and $42,448 in cash.
Fusco and Chen both pleaded guilty in December 2017 to conspiracy to possess and distribute controlled substances, and possession of equipment used to manufacture controlled substances.
In their plea, they conceded that they planned to distribute in excess of 213,000 fake Xanax tablets and huge quantities of anabolic steroids.
