Federal prosecutors say a network of illegal drug sellers packaged potentially deadly synthetic opioids into pills disguised as common prescription drugs and sold millions of them through fake online drugstores.

A network of illegal drug sellers based in the U.S., the Dominican Republic and India packaged potentially deadly synthetic opioids into pills disguised as common prescription drugs and sold millions of them through fake online drugstores, federal prosecutors said Monday.

At least nine people died of narcotics poisoning between August 2023 and June 2024 after consuming the counterfeit pills, according to an indictment unsealed in federal court in Manhattan.

The indictment charges that the leader of the enterprise, Francisco Alberto Lopez Reyes, orchestrated the scheme from the Dominican Republic, directing co-conspirators to set up dozens of online pharmacies that mimicked legitimate e-commerce sites. The sites lured customers into buying synthetic opioids — in some cases methamphetamine — disguised as prescription drugs such as Adderall, Xanax and oxycodone.

The counterfeit pills were sold to tens of thousands of Americans in all 50 states and to customers in Puerto Rico, Germany and Slovenia, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said at a news conference announcing the indictment.

  • eacapesamsara@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    22·
    2 months ago

    Yet another example of why the US shouldn’t try to enforce it’s weird drug laws globally, their enforcement agencies think meth is an opioid and that drug dealers are giving away expensive synthetic opioids disguised as other pills in order to…? Just outright lose money in creative ways?

    I hope every officer and prosecutor involved in this is ordered to never work any job where they can affect someone else’s life for the rest of their time on Earth.