South Brunswick Police Lt. Honored For Dark Web Takedown

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — South Brunswick police Lt. Jeff Russo received an award from the Federal Drug Agents Foundation for his work earlier this year cracking a "dark web" pill network that police say was quietly operating out of a suburban South Brunswick home.

Patch wrote about the massive takedown when it happened, in April of this year: Police say a man was using his South Brunswick home on Greenview Road as the hub of a massive nationwide illegal pill ring.

That home was raided by local South Brunswick police and federal agents on April 3.

Federal agents say that the man who was living there, Chester Anderson, 44, was selling homemade Xanax, GHB (steroids), LSD and ketamine on the dark web to buyers across the country. Incredibly, even the Manhattan district attorney's office was involved in the case; they started investigating the case in 2017 after they were tipped off when members of the ring began making suspicious ATM withdrawals in New York City.

Anderson and his associates would order the materials to make the drugs online, manufacture them at facilities throughout New Jersey and then sell the pills on the dark web, as it is illegal to sell ketamine, GHB and homemade Xanax without a license.

They had buyers in 43 states. After making the drugs in New Jersey, Anderson and his team would ship hundreds of thousands of pills to their customers at a time. They were paid in cryptocurrency, which police say they laundered by using preloaded debit cards and withdrawing cash at ATMs in Manhattan and New Jersey.

Anderson was charged as the leader of the ring. Police say his counterfeit pill ring raked in $2.3 million total.

Police say that Anderson's South Brunswick home was the base of operations, and the pills and drugs were manufactured in the properties in Jamesburg, Old Bridge, Jackson, Asbury Park and Vineland. When they raided the Greenview Drive home on April 3, they found multiple computers and servers in the basement, which police say Anderson used to sell the drugs on the dark web.

Initial Patch report: South Brunswick Home Was Hub Of Nat'l Pill Ring, Police Say

Russo was recognized along with members of the Manhattan District Attorneys Office, United States Secret Service, United Postal Inspectors Service and Homeland Security. Their investigation led to shutting down one of the largest dark web narcotics operations in the country.