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Tag: fentanyl distribution

  • Ex-Eagle Scout Turned Kingpin Found Guilty Of Fentanyl Trafficking Ring

    Ex-Eagle Scout Turned Kingpin Found Guilty Of Fentanyl Trafficking Ring

     The 29-year-old Utah man is facing a life sentence.

    The Justice Department reported that a Utah resident has been found guilty on 12 counts of organizing and directing a drug trafficking ring that was allegedly linked to several overdose deaths.

    Aaron Shamo, 29, of Salt Lake City, Utah, faces a possible mandatory minimum life sentence in prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar scheme, regarded by law enforcement as one of the largest in the country, that produced hundreds of thousands of counterfeit oxycodone tablets, which were made with the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, and fake Xanax tablets.

    Deadlocked on the 13th Count

    Shamo—described by ABC News as a former Eagle Scout and aspiring entrepreneur—was found guilty on 12 of 13 charges handed down by a grand jury, which was deadlocked on the final charge of aiding and abetting the distribution of fentanyl resulting in death.

    According to CBS, court documents showed that Shamo and co-conspirator Drew Crandall met while working at an eBay call center and reportedly formulated a plan to sell their own prescriptions of Adderall on the dark web. The pair used the funds to purchase other drugs, including cocaine and MDMA, which they paid friends to receive at their homes.

    Setting Up The Empire

    Eventually, their organization grew to producing their own pills, beginning with counterfeit Xanax made from the anxiety drug alprazolam, and later fentanyl, ordered from China, manufactured with a pill press, and sold via an online store called Pharma-Master. As ABC News noted, Shamo and his partners sold thousands of pills per week at $10 per pill.

    But as the Justice Department release showed, customers began complaining to Shamo that they were getting sick from his product, and in June of 2016, 21-year-old Ruslan Klyuev died from an apparent overdose of fentanyl, alcohol and a substance associated with cocaine after purchasing pills from Pharma-Master. Three other individuals that purchased pills from Shamo’s company died from overdoses, though Shamo was only charged with Klyuev’s death.

    Despite this, Shamo and Crandall were reportedly earning vast amounts of money from their operation, as indicated by social media posts of trips to Southeast Asia and purchases of a BMW and a boat.

    Pharma-Master’s end came as swiftly as its ascent: a customs agent in Los Angeles seized a package of fentanyl in 2016 that was intended for a third party reportedly hired by Shamo. Federal agents pressed the recipient to deliver subsequent packages to the police, including one that contained more than 34,000 pills. Shamo’s house was raided in November of that year, and intercepted Crandall while en route to his wedding in Hawaii in 2017.

    Shamo was convicted of 12 counts, including engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, possession and manufacture of a controlled substance, conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of knowing and intentional adulteration of drugs while held for sale. Crandall, who pled guilty in 2018 to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and commit money laundering, reached a plea deal with prosecutors and served as a witness in Shamo’s trial.

    Both face possible life sentences, though prosecutors have agreed to recommend a reduced sentence for Crandall, as determined by the judge. Sentencing for Shamo is set for December 3, 2019.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • USPS, FedEx Remain Easiest Way To Ship Fentanyl Into US

    USPS, FedEx Remain Easiest Way To Ship Fentanyl Into US

    “The sheer logistical nature of trying to pick out which packages contain opioids makes it much more challenging,” said a Customs and Border Protection official.

    A recent federal court case involving 43 members of a methamphetamine distribution network with ties to the Sinaloa Cartel again highlighted the relative ease with which the United States Postal Service (USPS) and private carriers like FedEx can be used to deliver powerful synthetic opioids into the United States.

    The case involved a San Diego-based network that shipped methamphetamine and the “club drug” gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) to locations throughout the U.S. using the postal service and FedEx. 

    Coverage in Quartz detailed how increases in express shipping, combined with a lack of sufficient staffing at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency and carriers like the UPS allow such transactions to take place. 

    Former FBI agent Dennis Franks said that the current method of stopping drugs from entering the country through the mail is like “putting your finger in a dike, but there’s just not enough fingers to put in all the holes.”

    The 43 defendants in the federal case used the USPS and fraudulent FedEx accounts to mail drugs to sub-distributors. The FedEx accounts were “billed to and paid for” by large corporations in the belief that the companies would not notice smaller shipment costs.

    A joint task force involving the Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Attorney’s Offices, sheriff’s and police departments, the United States Postal Inspection Service and Federal Bureau of Prisons collaborated to file indictments against 43 members of the network on May 21.

    Despite efforts like these, the practice of importing drugs through the USPS and private carriers remains a serious problem for state and federal law enforcement.

    According to congressional testimony from the union that represents CBP officers, the agency needs more than double the number of inspectors currently on duty at mail sorting facilities to keep up with the volume of packages to “ensure successful interdiction.” 

    In the past five years, express shipments have increased by nearly 50%, while international mail shipments have risen more than 200%. But at shipping and receiving hubs like the one maintained by FedEx in Memphis, Tennessee, there were only 15 CBP officers working on the overnight shift to process 86 million shipments in 2018.

    “The sheer logistical nature of trying to pick out which packages contain opioids makes it much more challenging,” said Robert E. Perez, an acting executive assistant commissioner for CBP. “It’s unlike anything we’ve encountered.”

    Policy changes incurred by the change in government administrations, as well as the necessity of a warrant to search any package sent via the USPS, also contribute to the overwhelming issues that confront law enforcement with mail shipments. 

    And as Franks noted, the cartels and related networks have their own means of assuring that their deliveries go unchallenged.

    “Don’t think that these cartels don’t have their own ‘intelligence services,’” he told Quartz. “Friends, family members working on the inside. So they’re going to know how many agents or officers are assigned to which FedEx facility, when they’re working, and when they’re not.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Report: Fentanyl Distribution Mishandled By Drug Companies, Feds

    Report: Fentanyl Distribution Mishandled By Drug Companies, Feds

    Nearly half of all patients who were prescribed fentanyl should have been denied the drug, according to a new report.

    A report published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is alleging widespread failure to keep the extremely potent opioid fentanyl out of the hands of patients who were ineligible to receive it.

    Using the Freedom of Information Act, researchers obtained around 5,000 pages of documents from the US government that they say show that nearly half of all patients who were prescribed fentanyl should have been denied the drug.

    Fentanyl is a relatively new opioid painkiller that is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. It is meant only for patients experiencing severe pain, including “breakthrough” pain so bad that opioids such as OxyContin or even morphine cannot control, and who have already developed a tolerance to these drugs. Without an established tolerance to opioids, taking fentanyl presents a high risk of overdose due to its extreme potency.

    Due to the dangers of fentanyl, the US government has established a strict protocol that was supposed to prevent anyone other than opioid-tolerant patients with severe pain, such as cancer patients, from being prescribed this drug.

    The researchers of this new report claim that this protocol has not been followed across the system, implicating the Food and Drug Administration, drug companies, and doctors.

    “The whole purpose of this distribution system was to prevent exactly what we found,” said study leader and co-director of the Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness at Johns Hopkins Caleb Alexander. “It should never happen. It’s a never event. And yet we found it was happening in 50% [of cases reviewed].”

    According to the report, between 34.6% and 55.4% of patients surveyed who were given fentanyl were “opioid-nontolerant.” Researchers also found that a substantial amount of pharmacists and drug prescribers (7.9% and 11.6%, respectively) reported believing that they were allowed to give fentanyl to patients who had not developed a tolerance to opioids 12 months after the protocol was put in place.

    This number increased as time went on, reaching 18.4% among prescribers and close to 50% among patients.

    In spite of this, no substantial changes were made to the protocol by the FDA.

    “What we found was that several years after the program was started, there were alarming deficiencies identified, and yet little was done by the FDA and drug manufacturers to effectively address these problems,” said Alexander.

    Researchers and addiction experts are finding that fentanyl has played a large role in the opioid epidemic. A 2018 study found that deaths related to fentanyl use increased by 520% from 2009 to 2016, while deaths from other prescription opioids increased by 18% in the same time frame.

    The fentanyl deaths were primarily from illicit use, but the high rates of death from fentanyl overdose demonstrate just how dangerous the drug is to those who are not approved for its use.

    “These drugs are dangerous enough, they should never be used in patients who aren’t already on around-the-clock opioids,” said Alexander.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • "American Idol" Contestant Accused Of Fentanyl Distribution

    "American Idol" Contestant Accused Of Fentanyl Distribution

    Feds allege that former Idol contestant Antonella Barba was part of a major Virginia drug ring.

    Antonella Barba, who appeared in the sixth season of the reality/competition series American Idol, was indicted on federal charges for allegedly distributing fentanyl, heroin and other narcotics for a major drug ring.

    Barba was arrested in Virginia in late 2018 on charges of intending to sell 100 grams or more of heroin.

    Barba pled not guilty to the charge, but now faces 11 federal indictments, including 10 counts of distribution or possession of cocaine, heroin and fentanyl with the intent to distribute.

    According to newly released court documents, Barba was allegedly part of a drug ring that operated in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area from late 2017 to the fall of 2018. The ring reportedly used an apartment to store heroin, cocaine and money and made drug sales during the aforementioned time period in various locations throughout the Hampton Roads region.

    The indictment also alleges that a member of the ring – Justin Michael Isaac – instructed Barba to deliver approximately 830 grams of fentanyl to another conspirator on October 11, 2018. Barba was arrested that morning and charged in district court with allegedly selling or intending to sell heroin. 

    After pleading not guilty to the October charge, Barba was out of bail and awaiting trial in state court, but was taken back into custody on February 11, 2019 for the federal indictments. A detention hearing is set for February 14, 2019 in U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia. Barba’s attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Suzanne Katchmar, did not respond to multiple requests for comments by various media outlets.

    Barba, a native of New Jersey and current Los Angeles resident, appeared on Idol in 2007 and reached the Top 16 before her elimination. She subsequently returned to college and earned a degree in architecture, and told Entertainment Weekly in 2009 that she was working on an album.

    Barba, who most recently reunited with several fellow Idol contestants for a parody of “We Are the World” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! was also charged with two misdemeanor charges of shoplifting at an Urban Outfitters in 2011.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • China Presses US To Reduce Opioid Demands

    China Presses US To Reduce Opioid Demands

    “When fewer and fewer Americans use fentanyl, there would be no market for it,” said one Chinese official.

    China’s drug control agency has challenged the U.S. to sharply reduce its demand for opioids, The Hill reported. The agency specifically called out the United States’ role in driving demand for drugs like fentanyl.

    “It’s common knowledge that most new psychoactive substances (NPS) have been designed in laboratories in the United States and Europe, and their deep-processing and consumption also mostly take place there,” said Liu Yuejin, deputy chair of China’s National Narcotics Control Commission. “The U.S. should adopt a comprehensive and balanced strategy to reduce and suppress the huge demand in the country for fentanyl and other similar drugs as soon as possible. When fewer and fewer Americans use fentanyl, there would be no market for it.”

    While the U.S. doesn’t deny the situation, a congressional report from 2017 singled out China as the “top source” of all fentanyl in the U.S. The year-long probe found that fentanyl could be easily purchased online from Chinese labs and mailed to buyers in the U.S.

    Last November, on a state visit to Beijing, President Trump said that China and the U.S. would work together to curb the “flood of cheap and deadly” Chinese-made fentanyl from making it stateside. China quickly disputed the claim that it was responsible for the “flood” of fentanyl into the U.S.

    A recent Bloomberg feature called fentanyl “an Internet-era plague,” though fentanyl has been around since 1960.

    At the time, it was the world’s “strongest opioid approved for human medical use,” and intended to treat extreme pain and to help put surgical patients to sleep. Fentanyl is said to be 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.

    In 2014, Bloomberg noted, fentanyl killed 5,000 people in the U.S. By September 2017, the drug was responsible for more than 26,000 deaths, accounting for more than half of all opioid-related deaths that year.

    “China’s drug control agencies, now and in the years to come, will place greater emphasis on drug control cooperation between China and the United States,” Liu insisted. “But I believe that to resolve this the more important issue is for the United States to strive to reduce and compress the great demand and drug consumption markets of opioids.”

    China doesn’t deny that some of the NPS in America were manufactured on Chinese soil, but said that “the substances are not yet readily abused and trafficked in China itself,” The Hill noted.

    Liu contends that Beijing has already taken steps to curb the production and export of synthetic drugs like fentanyl. They have even gone so far as to place fentanyl and 22 other compounds on a controlled-substances list. Liu also said that current political tensions between China and the U.S. wouldn’t affect China’s resolve in putting an end to the manufacture and trafficking of those drugs.

    “The U.S. should strengthen its crackdown on distributors, traffickers and drug-related criminal rings,” Liu argued, adding that it should “investigate and arrest more lawbreakers.”

    Last year, Trump labeled the opioid crisis as a public health emergency (stopping short of calling it a full-scale national emergency), and promised a comprehensive awareness campaign to help deter people from abusing drugs. 

    View the original article at thefix.com