NJ's Largest Pill Bust Ever: Up To 620K 'Xanax' Tablets, Heroin

Authorities busted a 43-state drug operation in New Jersey this week that was called the largest pill bust in the state's history: approximately 420,000 to 620,000 of purported alprazolam tablets, which is used to relieve anxiety, were seized. It's otherwise known as Xanax.

Three New Jersey men also had approximately 500 glassines of fentanyl-laced heroin and quantities of methamphetamine, ketamine, gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), and more, according to Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

Following a series of undercover purchases, investigators executed court-authorized search warrants on the defendants’ New Jersey properties and vehicles seized the purported alprazolam tablets, fentanyl-laced heroin and methamphetamine and other drugs, authorities said.

“When our office received reports of suspicious activity at ATMs in New York and New Jersey, our talented investigators followed the money, using our state-of-the-art Cyber Lab, to uncover a dark web counterfeit pill seller whose $2.3 million operation spanned the US,” said District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.

Authorities listed a number of startling details in the case during a press conference on Tuesday:

• One of the suspects, Ronald McCarty, 51 of Jackson, operated the business largely out of his Jersey Shore store, Wireless Spot on Main Street in Asbury Park. He and two others operated storefronts on the dark web that sold and shipped hundreds of thousands of counterfeit alprazolam, or "Xanax," tablets and other controlled substances to buyers in 43 states, authorities said.
• Chester Anderson, 44, of South Brunswick and co-conspirators Jarrette Codd, 41, of Middlesex County and McCarty laundered $2.3 million in cryptocurrency by using preloaded debit cards and withdrawing cash at ATMs in Manhattan and New Jersey, according to authorities.
• Investigators also recovered four pill presses and two industrial mixers, among other drug manufacturing items, and thousands of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency, according to authorities.
• Anderson operated two dark web storefronts, using the screenname “sinmed,” to sell the purported alprazolam and other controlled substances. Codd and McCarty assisted with manufacturing and equipment procurement.

• Over the course of the conspiracy, undercover Manhattan investigators purchased approximately 10,000 purported alprazolam tablets, in addition to ketamine and GHB, from the sinmed storefronts.
• Additionally, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office’s Cybercrime and Identity Theft Bureau identified more than 1,000 packages that were shipped by the defendants from New Jersey to locations across the country, and seized an additional 8,000 tablets by intercepting several of the packages.
• Nearly all of the packages had return addresses that falsely identified the sender as a Manhattan business, including multiple Manhattan law firms and a real estate agency.
• Anderson and McCarty created a shell company, Next Level Research and Development, to purchase more than 1,000 kilograms of microcrystalline cellulose, the primary ingredient used to manufacture pharmaceutical tablets.
• They also used McCarty's cellphone repair store, The Wireless Spot, to purchase a pill press, a powder mixer, and “punch dies” used to imprint “Xanax” labels on alprazolam pills.

The defendants are charged in a New York State Supreme Court indictment with conspiracy and money laundering. Anderson is additionally charged with multiple counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance and identity theft, authorities said.

The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office is handling the prosecution of the items seized in New Jersey.

"If you are engaging in illicit activity on the dark web, you are on notice: We know how to find you, we know how to put you out of business, and we know how to hold you criminally accountable. If you would like to report crimes committed on the dark web or anywhere else, please call our Cyber hotline at 212-335-9600," Vance said.