•Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar
A United States-based Nigerian, Oluwole Adegboruwa, and his accomplice, Enrique Isong, have been sentenced to 40 years combined jail term for coordinating the sales and distribution of a banned drug through the dark web across several states in the US.
It was gathered from a statement obtained on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office, District of Utah yesterday that the US District Court also ordered Adegboruwa to forfeit the sum of $20 million, reports The PUNCH.
According to the statement, Adegboruwa led a syndicate of drug peddlers whom he instructed on how drugs obtained by customers through a dark web marketplace he controlled would be packaged and distributed.
Stressing on the arrest of the convict alongside Isong, it noted that the convict sold and distributed 300,000 oxycodone pills between October 2016 and May 2019 and made a sum of $9 million from the illegal drug trade.
While Isong was jailed for 10 years in October, Adegboruwa was jailed for 30 years in November 2024.
The statement read, “Oluwole Adegboruwa, 54, of Las Vegas, Nevada, the main defendant and mastermind in a multi-million dollar dark web drug trafficking operation was sentenced to 30 years of imprisonment. He was also ordered supervised release for life and the forfeiture of over $20m, which is among the largest forfeitures holding a defendant financially accountable for his crimes in the history of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah.
“The sentence, imposed by the US District Court Judge Jill N. Parish, comes after a jury found Adegboruwa and his co-defendant Enrique Isong, 49, of Los Angeles, California, guilty in May 2024 of multiple federal crimes, including conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and money laundering. On October 23, 2024, Isong was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment and three years of supervised release.
“According to court documents, evidence presented at trial, and statements made at Adegboruwa’s sentencing hearing, from October 2016 through May 2019, Adegboruwa sold more than 300,000 oxycodone pills on dark web marketplaces to customers throughout the United States. The jury found that Adegboruwa organised and supervised a continuing criminal enterprise that earned approximately $9,112,471 in drug proceeds.”
Stressing the trial process, the statement noted that the convict confessed that he controlled the sales of illicit drugs and accepted payments through cryptocurrency before converting them to local currency.
It continued, “The jury found that Adegboruwa was unquestionably in charge of the illicit narcotics operation. Each member of his enterprise served in different capacities. Some were tasked with locating and procuring pharmacy-grade pills that were then re-sold through various dark web marketplaces. Others were involved in packaging the pills and/or shipping them to customers.
“At trial, Adegboruwa admitted that he controlled sales on the dark web markets and the monetary accounts, including the cryptocurrency accounts through which the enterprise received the bulk of its profits. Adegboruwa also admitted he was the one who decided to start his online dark web drug sales operation.”
Reacting to the judgement, the DEA Rocky Mountain Field Division Special Agent in Charge, Jonathan Pullen, noted that Adegboruwa concealed profits from his criminal proceeds in cryptocurrency transactions. He noted that the DEA would ensure that drug traffickers do not have a hiding place.
“Adegboruwa’s criminal drug enterprise was complex, sophisticated, and generated millions of dollars in profits concealed in cryptocurrency transactions. This sentencing is a stark reminder that the DEA is relentless in the pursuit of justice and that drug traffickers cannot hide their illicit activities even in the secretive expanses of the dark web,” Pullen said.
