LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A Los Angeles man was among two defendants found guilty in Utah of multiple federal crimes including conspiracies to distribute oxycodone and commit money laundering, officials announced Tuesday.
Enrique Isong, 49, and Oluwole Adegboruwa, 54, of Las Vegas, were convicted by a federal jury on May 20 after a two-week trial, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Salt Lake City.
Isong and Adegboruwa used the U.S. mail and interstate commerce to commit their crimes, which generated more than $8 million in criminal proceeds, prosecutors said.
According to evidence presented at trial, from October 2016 through May 2019, Adegboruwa sold more than 300,000 oxycodone pills to customers on dark web marketplaces, including Hansa, Dream Market, Wall Street Market and Alphabay -- which have since been dismantled by law enforcement. Customers paid Adegboruwa with cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, which he later sold for traditional currency, evidence showed.
Adegboruwa admitted he was the only one who had access to his vendor pages on the dark web markets to process orders from customers. He then directed associates in Los Angeles and Las Vegas to package and ship the pills around the United States, the jury found.
Jurors convicted Adegboruwa under what is commonly referred to as the "kingpin statute" for organizing a continuing criminal enterprise and directing at least five others in the drug distribution conspiracy.
The jury also heard testimony from co-defendants who have already pleaded guilty. They described the ways in which Adegboruwa directed them to sort, package and ship oxycodone pills to minimized damage and detection. The jury also heard from a Utah customer who discussed the process of ordering from Adegboruwa's dark web vendor pages and how the ordered products arrived at his home via U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail.
After the jury returned guilty verdicts against Isong and Adegboruwa on all counts, they returned a special verdict form on May 22, requiring Adegboruwa to forfeit $380,395 in cash, $15,500 in lieu of a 2017 Dodge Charger, and 26 money orders totaling $9,400. The jury also found that Adegboruwa had to forfeit cryptocurrency now valued at more than $15 million.
Isong and Adegboruwa are scheduled for sentencing in August in downtown Salt Lake City, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.