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William Fusco, of Philadelphia, has been sentenced to 20 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, while Norwich resident Jason Chen has been sentenced to there years probation for their roles in the distribution and manufacturing of the counterfeit drugs.
U.S. Attorney John Durham said that Fusco marketed counterfeit Xanax tablets and anabolic steroid pills on dark web forums such as Alphabay. Fusco would pay Chen to maintain two pill presses at Chen’s home and help Fusco manufacture and distribute the counterfeit Xanax and steroids to Fusco’s customers.
Fusco arranged to have chemicals needed to produce Xanax and steroids shipped to Chen’s residence. On multiple occasions, Fusco traveled to Chen’s home to mix chemicals and press chemicals, including Alprazolam powder into Xanax pills.
Durham said that Fusco would send Chen emails that indicated the product, quantity, and mailing address of each customer, as well as a link for Chen to click on to get a prepaid shipping label that corresponded to the order. Chen packaged the controlled substances, printed the prepaid shipping labels, applied the labels onto the corresponding packages, and then dropped the packages into various USPS mailboxes.
For several months, Chen shipped approximately 30 packages each week. Fusco paid Chen between $10 and $20, in Bitcoin, for each package.
During a court-authorized search of Chen’s home, two industrial pill tableting machines, tool and dye molds, one electric powder mixer, 65,122 Xanax tablets, 792 grams of Alprazolam powder, 12,000 steroid capsules, more than 321 100-milliliter liquid steroid vials, and approximately $8,900 in cash.
Fusco, 34, was arrested on June 16, 2017, and a search of his home found tool and dye molds, electronic scales, chemistry equipment, pill capsules, steroid bottle caps, other items used to process and package controlled substances, $42,448 in cash, eight guns, and ammunition.
In December 2017, Fusco and Chen, 34, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute, controlled substances, and one count of possession of a tableting machine or any equipment used to manufacture a controlled substance. In pleading guilty, they admitted that they conspired to distribute more than 213,000 counterfeit Xanax tablets and thousands of units of anabolic steroids.
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