Feds arrest Connecticut dealers selling counterfeit pills in US
NEW HAVEN, Connecticut: Federal law enforcement officials this week announced criminal indictments of seven people, including a New Haven man, for manufacturing and shipping hundreds and thousands of counterfeit pills containing methamphetamine and other illicit drugs around the U.S.
Federal authorities said Kelldon Hinton, 45, was running the operation from a rented garage he called his “lab” in East Haven, about five miles from downtown New Haven. He used drugs and pill presses bought from sellers in China and other countries. The New Haven man shipped the pills around the U.S. and also gave them to local dealers to sell on the streets.
Officials said Hinton shipped more than 1,300 packages through the U.S. mail to people who bought the pills on the dark web from February 2023 to February 2024. The indictments alleged that he also supplied pills to associates in Connecticut who sold them to their customers.
The six others who were indicted are also from Connecticut.
Hinton sold counterfeit oxycodone, Xanax, and Adderall pills that contained methamphetamine and protonitazene, a synthetic opioid that is three times more powerful than fentanyl, federal officials said. The tablets also contained dimethylpentylone – a designer party drug known to be mislabeled as ecstasy – and xylazine, a tranquilizer often called “tranq.”
Hinton and four others were arrested on September 5, the same day authorities with search warrants raided the East Haven garage and other locations. Officials say they seized several hundred thousand pills, two pill presses, and pill manufacturing equipment. One of the pill presses can churn out 100,000 pills an hour, authorities said.
Federal, state, and local authorities were involved in the investigation, including the Connecticut U.S. Attorney’s Office, the DEA, FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and state and local police.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 107,500 people died of overdoses in the U.S. last year. The country’s overdose epidemic has killed more than 1 million people since 1999.