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Sugabearcrisp
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30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb
#26988085 - 10/16/20 08:57 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/judge-orders-utahn-who-sold-fentanyl-laced-pills-on-darknet-to-spend-life-behind-bars/ar-BB1a3YsF
Quote:
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SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man who raked in millions of dollars making fentanyl-laced painkillers in his basement and selling the pills on the darknet, including some that prosecutors say caused dozens of deaths, will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball imposed the life sentence on Aaron Shamo, 30, after a hearing Thursday in federal court.
A 12-person jury found Shamo guilty last year of 12 of 13 charges, including continuing a criminal enterprise, which carries a mandatory-minimum life sentence. Kimball said he has no discretion to alter the sentence,
Jurors didn’t make a decision on whether Shamo sold drugs that resulted in the death of a 21-year-old California man.
But government prosecutors listed in court documents at least 90 people who they say died after buying drugs from his “Pharma-Master” website. Prosecutors say they agreed not to present evidence about those deaths at Shamo’s trial due to the risk of unfair prejudice.
Tova Keblish, of Long Island, New York, said in the hearing that her only son Gavin died after taking a “homemade instant death pill” he bought from Shamo’s website to relieve his pain from leg surgery.
“You may be saying, ‘I didn’t make him take it. I didn’t kill him.’ But you did,” she said, speaking directly to Shamo in the courtroom.
Keblish said her 23-year-old son was an Albany University graduate who was working as a counselor for children in foster care when he died. His injury made him vulnerable to a “predator” like Shamo, she said. Gavin Keblish, she said, thought he was buying oxycodone but got a lethal dose of fentanyl.
“You have ripped our hearts out and destroyed them,” Keblish said. “I will never forgive you.”
During his opportunity to speak, Shamo said he “made a fool of myself” and is “embarrassed” by his actions.
“As I look back, I can’t believe I did what I did,” he said.
Shamo said what started as a “small hobby” grew into a business. He said he enabled friends to do illegal things and “together we created a monster.” He said he didn’t know the dangers of what they were doing and thought they were doing good.
“I was wrong,” he said, adding he didn’t see that people “really do get addicted” to drugs until he went to jail. “I’m deeply sorry and regret the decisions I made.”
Shamo said he got lost in the money and the lifestyle it brought. Now, he said, he’s going to prison and “I don’t think I’ll ever get out.”
Defense attorney Greg Skordas called the sentence “unjust.”
Skordas said he “doesn’t believe for a minute” that Congress figured the mandatory-minimum life sentence attached to the crime would apply to a 26-year-old mentally ill drug dealer.
The sentencing hearing was delayed for months in part by Shamo having a breakdown in jail that left him hospitalized and incompetent for a time. He received treatment and medication to restore his competency, though Skordas described him Thursday as “barely competent.”
“It’s a tragedy what happened here. It’s an absolute tragedy,” he said.
Skordas said imposing a life sentence wrongly supposes Shamo is incapable of being rehabilitated and becoming a productive member of society.
“Make no mistake, your honor, this was not a just prosecution, and I think that we’re all worse off for it,” he said.
Prosecutor Steve Gadd said for Shamo and his associates, his deceased customers were faceless names on a page representing “filthy riches by selling poison disguised as medicine.” But to prosecutors, he said, they were brothers, sister, sons and daughters loved by many.
Gadd described the letters that families of victims wrote to the court as “haunting” witnesses to the “terrible evil” committed by Shamo.
Kimball said some of the letters he received called for the death penalty.
“That was never on the table,” the judge said.
In addition to continuing a criminal enterprise, the jury found Shamo guilty of three counts of importation of a controlled substance; possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute; manufacture of a controlled substance; adulteration of drugs while held for sale; use of the U.S. mail in furtherance of drug trafficking offense; money laundering; money laundering promotion and concealment; and engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from unlawful activity.
Six other defendants in the case, some of whom testified against Shamo, will be sentenced after his case is finished as part of plea deal with prosecutors.
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Shamo was the mastermind of a drug operation that employed as many as 20 people making powerful painkillers and shipping them to customers online around the country. He did extensive research on fentanyl, pill presses, punches and dyes, ingredients, selling on the darknet, how to make and ship drugs, and money laundering.
In November 2016, after conducting surveillance on Shamo for weeks, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and local police raided his Cottonwood Heights home where they seized $1.2 million in cash from a sock drawer. He had another $429,000 stashed at his parents’ house. Shamo was pressing Xanax pills in his basement at the time of his arrest.
Agents also later seized 513 bitcoins from Shamo’s online wallet, valued at an estimated $2.4 million.
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Gastronomicus
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Re: 30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb [Re: Sugabearcrisp]
#26988100 - 10/16/20 09:12 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Minimum life sentence. Fucking insane
-------------------- Make my Funk the P Funk, I wants to get Funked up LAGM2024
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D3_Myc
Weeb Trash
Registered: 05/06/18
Posts: 4,399
Loc: Year Zero
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Re: 30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb [Re: Gastronomicus] 5
#26988110 - 10/16/20 09:18 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Possibly his fent laced pills that killed my brother. Fuck him and every prick like him lacing with that shit.
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tyrannicalrex
Strange R
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Posts: 38,331
Loc: subtropics
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Re: 30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb [Re: D3_Myc]
#26988155 - 10/16/20 09:56 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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I agree demonic. I also want to add that the current way healthcare is done (like a business for max profits) is part of the problem. Greedy scumbag corporatists/capitalists are a huge problem.
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Sugabearcrisp
Not Your Average Bear
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Re: 30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb [Re: tyrannicalrex]
#26988273 - 10/16/20 11:31 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Sorry for your brother D3monic. I agree, fuck this prick, he is a mass murderer and he knew what he was doing was killing people and kept doing it till he was caught. All for greed. Multimillions plus cottonwood canyon is like rich ski area so probably another million plus. Not enough.
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PsychoReactive
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Posts: 2,563
Loc: Cocalero
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Re: 30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb [Re: Sugabearcrisp]
#26988624 - 10/16/20 02:53 PM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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If you sell fentanyl, you deserve a judge to throw a book at you. I can understand Mexican cartels pushing this garbage, but a wealthy dude from the US
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Achuma
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Loc: Smegmaguay
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Re: 30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb [Re: PsychoReactive]
#26988896 - 10/16/20 05:19 PM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Steve Gadd - when I'm not drumming for jazz giants and rock stars, I'm prosecuting drug dealers
-------------------- Achuma's Psilocybe Extraction Pictorial Pictured: crystalline extract derived from Psilocybe Cubensis. See link for detailed instructions, as well as a lengthy discussion on the properties of light.
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The Thing
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Registered: 03/01/18
Posts: 1,539
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Re: 30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb [Re: Achuma]
#26988937 - 10/16/20 05:54 PM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Agents also later seized 513 bitcoins from Shamo’s online wallet, valued at an estimated $2.4 million.
What happens to the bitcoins?
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Holybullshit
Stranger
Registered: 01/06/19
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Re: 30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb [Re: The Thing]
#26989683 - 10/17/20 07:31 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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The Feds keep them of course.
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lifeiswhatyoumake
pump ur peen
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Re: 30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb [Re: Gastronomicus] 1
#26990099 - 10/17/20 01:35 PM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
Gastronomicus said: Minimum life sentence. Fucking insane
The guy was adding a super dangerous and potent drug to pills that people thought were something way less potent; that is akin to voluntary manslaughter in my eyes. He deserves life in prison for what he did. His drugs apparently killed at least twelve people.
If he was selling normal pills that contained only what they were expected to contain then I would agree with you that the sentence is too harsh.
-------------------- I dropped a cheesy pop dance track "Be With Me, Baby": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wezFSNS7JDI
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Gastronomicus
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Re: 30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb [Re: lifeiswhatyoumake] 1
#26990195 - 10/17/20 02:46 PM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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That's fair and I'm not defending him. I just think that the idea of a MANDATORY life sentence is ludicrous. Regardless of crime. If someone is convicted and sentenced to life ok (although I'm not really in favor of life sentences in general). But the idea that there are some crimes that carry automatic sentences, especially one so heavy, rubs me the wrong way.
-------------------- Make my Funk the P Funk, I wants to get Funked up LAGM2024
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D3_Myc
Weeb Trash
Registered: 05/06/18
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Re: 30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb [Re: Gastronomicus]
#26990201 - 10/17/20 02:49 PM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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I agree on the mandatory life sentence. No individual crime justifies those terms.
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Sugabearcrisp
Not Your Average Bear
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Re: 30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb [Re: D3_Myc] 1
#26990563 - 10/17/20 07:31 PM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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There is no good answer here, I question whether the charge that landed him a life sentence should carry such a sentence, but I am satisfied with the outcome. Ideally he would be charged for the ODs but the rico continuing a criminal enterprise is a slam dunk comparitively. Still fuck a dude that was pressing (probably inaccurately) a microgram dangerous drug as the most popular diverted pharmas, xanax and oxy.
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Buckomcdoogle
Atypical obsessive.
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Re: 30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb [Re: Sugabearcrisp]
#26990796 - 10/17/20 10:53 PM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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They should have given him the death penalty.
-------------------- "Nothing is more dangerous to your creativity than comfort and familiarity" "Nihilism is the most basic truth in existence, the only consistency throughout the world, and the universe is chaos and decay" "Logic leads to nihilism"
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LosTresOjos
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Re: 30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb [Re: Buckomcdoogle]
#26991678 - 10/18/20 03:55 PM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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I can't stand by the minimum mandatory sentence. The jury couldn't make a decision on the deaths.
IF and i say if they can they should pursue charges for any deaths but here we are, life for criminal enterprise.
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Buckomcdoogle
Atypical obsessive.
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Re: 30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb [Re: LosTresOjos]
#26991711 - 10/18/20 04:29 PM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Guys like that are likely responsible for killing dozens of people all in the name of being greedy and there would be no way of proving it.
The counterfeit pills and laced cocaine kill tons of people.
A few summers ago in Seattle 2 women were found dead in an hot July apartment. One of the neighbors complained of a stench. They had been dead since the weekend before, the cocaine they had tested positive for fentanyl.
-------------------- "Nothing is more dangerous to your creativity than comfort and familiarity" "Nihilism is the most basic truth in existence, the only consistency throughout the world, and the universe is chaos and decay" "Logic leads to nihilism"
Edited by Buckomcdoogle (10/18/20 04:32 PM)
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dark_leviathan
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Re: 30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb [Re: Gastronomicus] 1
#26992254 - 10/19/20 03:47 AM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
Gastronomicus said: Minimum life sentence. Fucking insane
When you're out giving falsely advertised/laced pills, I'd gladly impose that sentence. Irresponsible.
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Fractal420
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Re: 30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb [Re: dark_leviathan]
#26993140 - 10/19/20 02:45 PM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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Fuck him
-------------------- Dreaming of That face again. It's bright and blue and shimmering. Grinning wide And comforting me with it's three warm and wild eyes. Prying open MY third eye
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LosTresOjos
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Re: 30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb [Re: Fractal420]
#26996578 - 10/21/20 03:07 PM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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If you stand by this sentence of life for criminal enterprise then if you get caught up in some shit where a minimum mandatory sentence is carried out then you bite your tongue. If you are willing to use it on some one then it can be justified in using against you.
Charge the man for deaths for fuck sakes. Charge the man for poisoning, there are charges for that. I mean what the fuck, gotta keep john doe out of the big drug business.
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Sugabearcrisp
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Re: 30 year old Utah man sentenced to life for selling fent oxy pills on darkweb [Re: LosTresOjos] 1
#26996594 - 10/21/20 03:22 PM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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They got capone on tax evasion only cause the rico act wasn't a thing yet. The continueing criminal enterprise statute is like rico on steriods with the super kingpin provision under which he was sentenced to life but also easily could have gotten the death penalty under.
Wiki CCES
I have mixed feelings on the statute as I have seen people pinched for 20 years on conspiracy to distrubute cannabis with additional time cause they had firearms in their 20s after getting pumped up by their dealer who turned on them. Seemed alot like entrapment.
On the other hand fuck this dude.
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