His fentanyl-laced drugs killed dozens, police say. Utah man going to prison for life
A Utah man was sentenced to life in prison after prosecutors accused him of making millions of dollars selling counterfeit painkillers on the dark web that spurred dozens of fatal overdoses.
U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball sentenced Aaron Shamo, 30, to life in prison at a Thursday federal court hearing, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. Shamo was found guilty of 12 charges last year, including “continuing criminal enterprise.”
At least 90 people died after taking the drugs purchased on Shamo’s website, prosecutors said in the release.
During Shamo’s trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Vernon Stejskal called him a “profiteer, callously making millions of dollars and living a life of leisure while exploiting those suffering through opioid addiction.”
“Aaron Shamo knew the nation was on fire with opioids and he poured fuel on the flames, over and over and over, never getting burned himself, but causing pain and misery wherever his fire spread,” Stejskal said. “Aaron Shamo could be considered the face of the opioid epidemic.”
Shamo made counterfeit Oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl, prosecutors said, and a Nov. 2016 raid on his home in Cottonwood Heights resulted in the discovery of fake pills, a pill press and $1.2 million in cash, according to ABC4 News.
One milligram of fentanyl can result in “dangerous consequences,” including death, experts said in the release. Prosecutors said Shamo was told by customers that they were getting sick from his product and he sent them more pills.
Shamo is also accused of selling counterfeit Xanax, a prescription drug used to treat anxiety and panic disorders.
Tova Keblish said her 23-year-old son Gavin overdosed and died from Shamo’s drugs in 2016 and accused him of “shipping counterfeit death pills,” ABC4 News reported.
“You shipped thousands of people their death sentence. You were making your own homemade instant death pill…You denied my son the right to live,” she said, according to the station.
Shamo said he convinced himself he was trying to help those who couldn’t get drugs from their doctors, The Associated Press reported.
“I didn’t know the dangers of what we were doing,” Shamo said. “Together we created a monster.”
Shamo’s attorneys argued that the sentence was too harsh and as a “people pleaser,” Shamo couldn’t have run the operation without friends, according to the AP. Shamo’s friends testified against him and are expected to get lighter sentences.
