http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-reg-fentanyl-traffickers-20171026-story.html
More details -- including a glimpse of their lavish lifestyle -- emerged Thursday about a South Florida couple's alleged involvement with an international drug trafficking ring that brought synthetic opioids to American shores.
When agents arrested Davie residents Anthony Gomes, 33, and Elizabeth Ton, 26, earlier this month they found $150,000 in cash, a $900,000 home, a Maserati and a boat. Feds say they are still looking for the couple's plane.
Despite their pricey possessions, agents learned they'd only reported a combined $12,500 in wages, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jodi Anton.
Gomes and Ton were involved in money laundering and distribution as part of a scheme to sell drugs over the internet, which led to four deaths in North Dakota and Oregon, authorities said. If convicted on charges of conspiracy to buy and distribute drugs that caused fatalities, they could face life in prison.
Their arrests are part of the U.S. Justice Department's first-ever indictments against Chinese manufacturers of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs -- the synthetic painkillers blamed for surging overdose deaths around the country.
The ring moved more than 400 grams of fentanyl and more than 100 grams of related drugs to states including Florida, Oregon and North Dakota.
Fentanyl was the leading cause of overdose deaths in Florida during the first half of last year, causing 704 deaths, the latest data available from the Florida Medical Examiner's Commission.
Fentanyl fuels rise in drug deaths in South Florida Gomes used email and an encrypted application to communicate with a drug trafficker working out of a prison in Canada, said Anton. Together they coordinated purchases and shipments of fentanyl and related drugs, as well as wire transfers of money to Canada and China, she said.
In one email, Gomes described the negative feedback he was receiving for a shipment of "H" -- slang for heroin -- that caused three people to overdose. He wrote that his customers didn't think the drug was actually heroin because of what it looked like when they mixed it with water, according to Anton.
"It's crazy because the first week everybody loved it," he wrote, according to Anton.
South Florida couple charged in fentanyl drug ring An email sent by Ton said she didn't want Gomes to deal with "fent products," according to Anton.
Ton's attorney denied the email was sent by his client. Gomes' attorney said it's not clear that Gomes or Ton sent the emails even though they may have come from their accounts.
"Just because someone sends an email doesn't mean that it comes from the person identified as the sender," said Gomes' attorney Barry Wax. "It's not uncommon for emails to be hacked or spoofed these days."
The government also did not produce evidence that Gomes ever actually received any drugs, Wax said.
At a detention hearing in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrick Hunt ordered Ton and Gomes to remain in pre-trial detention to be moved to North Dakota ahead of trial.
Hunt sided with U.S. attorneys who argued the couple could present a danger to the community if released and are at risk of fleeing.
The drug ring operated from January 2013 through August 2016 with organizers in the U.S., Canada and China, according to an indictment.
The alleged kingpin of the international drug trafficking ring, Jian Zhang, AKA Hong Kong Zaron, is accused of distributing at least 3,000 grams of drugs including fentanyl analogs, records show.
Zhang ran Zaron Bio-tech and manufactured fentanyl and similar drugs in at least four labs in China, records show.
Much of the fentanyl that ends up on the black market in South Florida comes from Chinese labs marketed to drug traffickers in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration report.
Zhang and a second man arrested in September, Xiaobing Yan, are the first Chinese nationals the Justice Department has designated among the most significant drug trafficking threats in the world, said Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, in a press release.
So far, 21 people have been indicted as part of the investigation, according to a press release.
As of March 1, China banned fentanyl and several variants of the drug. Authorities are hopeful the ban will lead to a decrease in the drug's availability in the U.S.
yeah, they 'found' this $900,000 home, i bet is was well hidden in some mountain or beneath the ocean.
sounds more like they used google maps and both were at home right now. if there was some real investigation, they would have the plane aswell. i mean, seriously, how hard can it be to find something like that (considering they use it from time to time).
so they actually wanted to sell H, but those guys sent em fent instead.
ok...so anything they know comes from some fucked up chinese lab.
to be honest, i mentioned the email which was probably written by that guy, but if he already noticed there is some shit going on with his product, did he still sell it? did he test it? what was found when raiding his home? all i see is cash. but no drugs, no evidence of a shipment.
so this is the new way of blackmailing someone? i pay 100$ to some chinese drug lab and they simply leave a note in their lab with the name/address i choose and this persons life will get fucked up?
this article either lacks real facts or there is something really wrong with the laws.