DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – A Michigan woman has pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute millions of illicit and counterfeit pills through a dark web marketplace called “opiateconnect.”
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Investigators traced the marketplace to a distribution hub in Detroit. A subsequent search and seizure operation revealed a clandestine drug lab equipped with an industrial size pill press, an industrial mixer, multiple firearms, and approximately $1,300,000 in crypto and U.S. currency.
Among the controlled substances seized were cocaine and counterfeit pills. The counterfeits were designed to look like alprazolam (a sedative more commonly known as Xanax), but they actually contained uncontrolled research chemicals not scheduled for human consumption.
“Counterfeit pills pose a unique danger to this community, especially ones that have the appearance of a drug that is so regularly prescribed,” said U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison. “We will continue to investigate and aggressively prosecute instances where those counterfeit pills are manufactured illegally and distributed in our district to keep our community safe.”
Carolyn Hernandez-Taylor, 29, has pleaded guilty to three counts:
- Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance, which carries a statutory mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years and a maximum of 40 years;
- Conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years; and
- Dispensing a counterfeit drug, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert Jerome White and John N. O’Brien.
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