6 defendants sentenced to prison for trafficking nearly 12 kilograms of methamphetamine in Adderall lookalike pills via the dark web

CINCINNATI - Six Texans convicted as part of a large-scale dark web drug trafficking organization have been sentenced in federal court in Cincinnati.

According to court documents, from July 2019 through December 2020, the co-conspirators distributed significant quantities of methamphetamine - pressed to look like legitimate Adderall pills - over the dark web. The defendants sold at least 11.98 kilograms total of methamphetamine in pills and laundered between $15,000 and $50,000 per month using cryptocurrency. The group shipped the drugs nationwide, including into the Southern District of Ohio, using the United States Postal Service.

The defendants used the vendor name "Loverbois," along with several other usernames, and averaged 20 orders per day.

Those sentenced in this case include:

Court documents detail that Phung created and ran the Loverbois account(s) for much of the conspiracy period. He took orders online and obtained pills from Tran and Guzman. Phung also coordinated the receipt of cryptocurrency in exchange for the pills and laundered those proceeds.

Guzman had a pill press and industrial mixer at his apartment in Houston, where Phung also lived for a period of time. Harris also lived in the Houston apartment, where he pressed his own pills for distribution. Pray aided Guzman by helping obtain, pack, and ship the pills.

Dang packaged pills for shipment and delivery and helped move and launder cryptocurrency. Dang laundered approximately $15,000 per month.

The Loverbois online drug trafficking organization sold and shipped pills to undercover law enforcement officers in the Southern District of Ohio in a series of transactions.

A federal grand jury indicted the defendants in June 2021. The final defendant, Kevin Tran, was sentenced on Sept. 30.

Kenneth L. Parker, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Elena Iatarola, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division; Orville O. Greene, Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); Charles L. Grinstead, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Food and Drug Administration - Office of Criminal Investigations (FDA-OCI), Kansas City Field Office; Lesley C. Allison, Inspector in Charge, United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS); Mason Police Chief Levi Wells; Houston Police Chief J. Noe Diaz and the Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement (JCODE) team announced the sentences imposed by U.S. District Court Judge Jeffery P. Hopkins. Deputy Criminal Chief Frederic C. "Fritz" Shadley is representing the United States in this case.

This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, and gangs that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

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