Fake Xanax pills gang members jailed
Four people have been jailed for their roles in a £4m fake Xanax drug-making operation.
A gang of 10 family members and friends produced up to 11 million counterfeit pills in garden sheds and garages in Tipton, Wednesbury and Wolverhampton, selling them as authentic anti-anxiety medication on the so-called dark web.
On Friday, Scott Tonkinson, Jordan Pitts, Anthony Pitts and Bladen Roper were jailed at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
Five other gang members, including the ringleader, were sentenced on Thursday. Another is due to be sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on Monday.
Tests revealed the fake tablets contained varying amounts of the active ingredient Alprazalam - from none at all to twice the standard amount.
The Crown Prosecution service said the group were not concerned with the dangers of producing the pills and "only saw a money-making opportunity".
Tonkinson, of Arundel Road, Willenhall, was jailed for four years and six months after admitting five charges, including conspiracy to supply Class C drugs.
Judge John Butterfield said the 36-year-old, whose half-brother Brian Pitts led the operation, was initially involved in making the fake pills, before being told he was not making enough and the job was given to someone else.
Anthony Pitts, 41 of Belmont Close, Tipton, another half-brother of the ringleader, had earlier pleaded guilty to three charges including conspiracy to supply Class C drugs and was sentenced to five years and five months.
His role was described as packing pills and maintaining the pill-making machines.
His mother, Deborah Bellingham, 58, is due to be sentenced on the same charges on Monday.
Jordan Pitts, 26, and Bladen Roper, 25, of Hickman Road and Powis Avenue in Tipton, were both previously convicted by a jury of assisting in the operation.
Jailing Pitts for three years, Judge Butterfield said he had been involved in packing and posting the fake tablets, and parcels that had been intercepted in the USA were labelled with his name.
The judge said Roper, who was involved in ordering the materials needed to make the pills, appeared to be unaware of the operation at first, but evidence suggested he was later "clearly aware" of what was going on.
Roper, who had separately pleaded guilty to driving offences including dangerous driving and driving while disqualified, was jailed for three years and three months.
On Thursday, the gang's ringleader Brian Pitts, 30, from Wednesbury, was jailed for eight years.
Described by the judge as the "overlord" and the "beating heart" of the enterprise, he ran the operation from a luxury villa in Thailand between 2018 and 2019, shipping tablets across the UK and to the USA.
He was assisted by his then partner Katie Harlow, 27, from Bilston, who was jailed for two years and one month.
Three other gang members - Brian Pitts' father-in-law Lee Lloyd, 48, Kyle Smith, 26, and Mark Bayley, 63 - were given sentences of between four years and seven years and two months.
Judge Butterfield described the enterprise as "large scale, organised and determined".
The operation was uncovered following an investigation by the maker of Xanax, Pfizer.
The gang used cryptocurrency to buy the powder needed to make the pills from China, which were pressed in four legally-obtained pill-making machines.
Fake Xanax stamps were used to make the pills appear authentic.
Jonathan Kelleher from the Crown Prosecution Service said: "These drugs should only be prescribed by a doctor and anyone buying them on the Dark Web, produced in a back-garden shed, has no clue what they are taking."
Follow BBC Wolverhampton & Black Country on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Fake £4m Xanax drug gang boss jailed
Gang made millions selling fake Xanax pills on dark web
Millions of fake Xanax pills made in sheds - trial
HM Courts & Tribunals Service
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
8 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
NorCal man who sold pills to teen gets prison after fatal overdose
A Monterey County man was sentenced to eight years in prison for selling fentanyl-laced pills to a 15-year-old, leading to the minor's fatal overdose. Edward Tellez Solis, 27, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, distribution of fentanyl and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Northern District of California announced Monday. Tellez Solis, of Marina (Monterey County), used social media to advertise and sell drugs, including counterfeit oxycodone pills, known as M30 pills, that were laced with fentanyl, the attorney's office said. Prosecutors said Tellez Solis also sold cocaine, ecstasy, hydrocodone, marijuana and Xanax. Law enforcement said Tellez Solis used Snapchat and Telegram to reach customers. 'Edward Tellez Solis used social media as a superhighway to sell lethal drugs and line his pockets with the proceeds,' Drug Enforcement Agency Special Agent in Charge Bob P. Beris said in a statement. On March 3, 2022, Tellez Solis offered to sell a 15-year-old more than a dozen M30 pills, prosecutors said, delivering at least nine of the pills to the teenager the next day. Prosecutors said Tellez Solis knew that the pills 'contained fentanyl or some other federally controlled substance.' The 15-year-old had an overdose and died after getting the M30 pills, the U.S. attorney's office said. Police searched Tellez Solis' car and found a 'stash of controlled substances,' as well as a loaded gun, three loaded magazines and 89 rounds of ammunition, prosecutors said. Law enforcement also found more than $17,000 in cash in Tellez Solis' car and nearly $100,000 in cash in his home, the attorney's office said. 'Today's sentencing marks a crucial step in bringing justice to the victim and a family devastated by the scourge of fentanyl,' Beris said. 'We will be relentless in our pursuit of unscrupulous drug dealers who distribute poison in our community.' On top of his prison time, Tellez Solis was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay nearly $30,000 to the family of the 15-year-old who fatally overdosed. 'While this sentence brings a measure of justice to the community for this crime, it can never undo the pain and devastation the defendant's reprehensible actions caused the victim's family,' United States Attorney Craig H. Missakian said in a statement.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
L.A. probation officer arrested, accused of supplying drugs to juvenile hall
A Los Angeles County probation officer was arrested Tuesday afternoon on charges he smuggled drugs into a juvenile hall where a teen died of a drug overdose in 2023, prosecutors said. Michael Solis, 59, allegedly conspired with two juvenile detainees to sell Xanax to people being held inside of Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar between May and August of 2023, according to a criminal complaint filed last week. Court records show Solis allegedly began conspiring to sell the drugs on May, 14, 2023, just five days after 18-year-old detainee Bryan Diaz died of a fentanyl overdose in the same building. 'Trafficking illegal drugs to juveniles is unconscionable under any circumstances, let alone as a government employee taking advantage of vulnerable youth in need of guidance and support,' Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said in a statement. 'Probation officers have as their primary duty the protection, health and safety of juveniles under their care. My office will not tolerate such an abuse of power, which endangers youth, undermines rehabilitation, and makes our communities less safe.' A spokesperson for the district attorney's office said Solis was cited to appear for arraignment on June 18. The D.A.'s office declined to say if Diaz's death sparked the investigation into Solis, who faces up to three years in prison if he is convicted. Reports of increased drug use among teens held at the Secure Youth Treatment Facility at Nidorf, where Solis worked, had surfaced in the months before Diaz's death. Read more: Judge orders more than 100 youths moved out of troubled L.A. County juvenile hall In April 2023, the L.A. County Inspector General's office detailed two incidents where youths were taken to local medical facilities or revived with Narcan after fentanyl overdoses. A March 2023 search of the unit where the teens overdosed uncovered pills laced with fentanyl and 'two large bindles of what appeared to be fentanyl' inside a dormitory, according to the inspector general's report. Diaz died on May 9, 2023. Five days later, according to the criminal complaint, Solis began conspiring with two juveniles at Nidorf to bring Xanax into the jails. Court filings say he was caught on camera twice handing a juvenile — identified only as "Co-Conspirator A" — small packages believed to be drugs inside Nidorf hall. Solis, who the juveniles nicknamed "Old Boy" in phone calls recorded by law enforcement, was charging as much as $400 per drug drop, according to the complaint. The enterprise fell apart in August 2023, when "Co-Conspirator A" was caught with 106 Xanax pills inside of Nidorf Hall, court records show. 'There is no room in this Department for anyone who violates the public trust and endangers the safety and wellbeing of the youth in our care,' Chief Probation Officer Guillermo Viera Rosa said in a statement Tuesday. 'We applaud the action taken by District Attorney Nathan Hochman, and remain steadfast in our commitment to holding our staff to the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and accountability.' Solis first came under scrutiny in October 2023 after another Secure Youth Treatment Facility resident, Nicholas Ibarra, was charged with bringing drugs into the facility. Ibarra told two probation officers — Reggie Torres and David Corona — that he could identify an officer bringing drugs into the facility, according to Tom Yu, an attorney representing both officers. Torres and Corona were both placed on administrative leave a short time later for conducting an "incomplete investigation," according to Yu, who said the charges against Solis vindicated the officers. "My guys were unlawfully f—ed with essentially, they were harassed and they were obstructed from doing their jobs," Yu said. "Solis was the target of the investigation." The probation department has not responded to Yu's allegations since he first made them in 2023. The charges are the latest in a series of criminal investigations targeting probation officers. Earlier this year, a California Attorney General's office investigation into so-called "gladiator fights" at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey led to indictments against 30 officers. A probation supervisor also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in February, years after the Times published footage of him bending a teen in half inside Camp Kilpatrick. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
12 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
L.A. probation officer arrested, accused of supplying drugs to juvenile hall
A Los Angeles County probation officer was arrested Tuesday afternoon on charges he smuggled drugs into a juvenile hall where a teen died of a drug overdose in 2023, prosecutors said. Michael Solis, 59, allegedly conspired with two juvenile detainees to sell Xanax to people being held inside of Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar between May and August of 2023, according to a criminal complaint filed last week. Court records show Solis allegedly began conspiring to sell the drugs on May, 14, 2023, just five days after 18-year-old detainee Bryan Diaz died of a fentanyl overdose in the same building. 'Trafficking illegal drugs to juveniles is unconscionable under any circumstances, let alone as a government employee taking advantage of vulnerable youth in need of guidance and support,' Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said in a statement. 'Probation officers have as their primary duty the protection, health and safety of juveniles under their care. My office will not tolerate such an abuse of power, which endangers youth, undermines rehabilitation, and makes our communities less safe.' The L.A. County Probation Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was not immediately clear if Solis had legal representation or when he would be arraigned. A spokesperson for the district attorney's office declined to say if Diaz's death sparked the investigation into Solis, who faces up to three years in prison if he is convicted. Reports of increased drug use among teens held at the Secure Youth Treatment Facility at Nidorf, where Solis worked, had surfaced in the months before Diaz's death. In April 2023, the L.A. County Inspector General's office detailed two incidents where youths were taken to local medical facilities or revived with Narcan after fentanyl overdoses. A March 2023 search of the unit where the teens overdosed uncovered pills laced with fentanyl and 'two large bindles of what appeared to be fentanyl' inside a dormitory, according to the inspector general's report. Diaz died on May 9, 2023. Five days later, according to the criminal complaint, Solis began conspiring with two juveniles at Nidorf to bring Xanax into the jails. Court filings say he was caught on camera twice handing a juvenile — identified only as 'Co-Conspirator A' — small packages believed to be drugs inside Nidorf hall. Solis, who the juveniles nicknamed 'Old Boy' in phone calls recorded by law enforcement, was charging as much as $400 per drug drop, according to the complaint. The enterprise fell apart in August 2023, when 'Co-Conspirator A' was caught with 106 Xanax pills inside of Nidorf Hall, court records show. 'There is no room in this Department for anyone who violates the public trust and endangers the safety and wellbeing of the youth in our care,' Chief Probation Officer Guillermo Viera Rosa said in a statement Tuesday. 'We applaud the action taken by District Attorney Nathan Hochman, and remain steadfast in our commitment to holding our staff to the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and accountability.' Solis first came under scrutiny in October 2023 after another Secure Youth Treatment Facility resident, Nicholas Ibarra, was charged with bringing drugs into the facility. Ibarra told two probation officers — Reggie Torres and David Corona — that he could identify an officer bringing drugs into the facility, according to Tom Yu, an attorney representing both officers. Torres and Corona were both placed on administrative leave a short time later for conducting an 'incomplete investigation,' according to Yu, who said the charges against Solis vindicated the officers. 'My guys were unlawfully f—ed with essentially, they were harassed and they were obstructed from doing their jobs,' Yu said. 'Solis was the target of the investigation.' The probation department has not responded to Yu's allegations since he first made them in 2023. The charges are the latest in a series of criminal investigations targeting probation officers. Earlier this year, a California Attorney General's office investigation into so-called 'gladiator fights' at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey led to indictments against 30 officers. A probation supervisor also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in February, years after the Times published footage of him bending a teen in half inside Camp Kilpatrick.
