A Rhode Island man pleaded guilty in connection to the largest-known bust of methamphetamine-laced counterfeit Adderall pills, consisting of around 660,500 pills worth $4.6 million in street value, authorities said.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Rhode Island Zachary A. Cunha on Monday announced the guilty plea of Dylan Rodas, 27, of Cumberland and more details about the seizure that occurred in late March.
Rodas has now entered a plea deal, declaring his guilt on the charge of possession of methamphetamine with the intention to distribute. The charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.
In addition to the pills, which weighed around 660 pounds, law enforcement found and seized 1,000 fake oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl, 250 grams of crack cocaine, $15,000 in cash and seven handguns, including two untraceable “ghost guns” and two with the serial numbers filed off, prosecutors said.
“This is believed to be the largest seizure of counterfeit Adderall pills to date, and among the largest single methamphetamine seizures by DEA’s New England Field Division,” according to the Department of Justice.
“The quantity of methamphetamine represented by this seizure – methamphetamine that was packaged and ready to flow out onto the street, to devastating effect in our communities – is staggering,” Mr. Cunha said in the DOJ press release.
He said the days when New England was relatively free of meth are emphatically over.
“This prosecution, which involves the seizure of what I can only term industrial-scale quantities of meth, is a wake-up call that we cannot be complacent — that we cannot treat meth as a problem that happens elsewhere,” Mr. Cunha said.
Authorities said the meth came from cartels in Mexico.
“The Mexican cartels are producing meth and fentanyl in record amounts down in these jungles and laboratories … and they’re flooding the U.S. market, so this meth came out of Mexico,” Drug Enforcement Administration New England Division Special Agent in Charge Brian Boyle told the Providence Journal.
