NEVADA
Two defendants were sentenced Wednesday to 20 years each in federal prison for crimes committed in connection with the manufacture of synthetic cannabinoid products or “spice,” officials stated.
They also operated a continuing criminal enterprise, manufacturing and distributing controlled substance analogs, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, maintaining drug premises, and possession of a listed chemical with the intent to manufacture a controlled substance.
On July 3, 2019, following a ten-day federal jury trial in Las Vegas, Nevada, Charles Burton Ritchie, 49, of Park City, Utah, and Benjamin Galecki, 46, of Pensacola, Florida, were found guilty of 24 counts.
The charges included operating a continuing criminal enterprise, manufacturing, and possessing with the intent to distribute controlled substance analogs, and money laundering, among other related charges.
“Charles Burton Ritchie and Benjamin Galecki operated a nationwide criminal enterprise, selling dangerous drugs worth millions of dollars that contained illegal ingredients imported from China,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
“These sentences demonstrate the department’s commitment to aggressively pursuing criminals who seek to circumvent U.S. drug laws by selling dangerous drugs that threaten the health of our communities across the nation.”
According to court documents and evidence presented during trial, from March 21 to July 25, 2012, Ritchie and Galecki owned and managed Zencense Incenseworks, a company that (a) manufactured smokable synthetic cannabinoid products and (b) marketed and sold them as “potpourri,” “incense,” or “aromatherapy.”
Ritchie and Galecki rented a warehouse in Las Vegas for the sole purpose of manufacturing these synthetic products, which contained the dangerous chemical XLR-11 — a controlled substance analog, court documents indicate.
At the Las Vegas warehouse, a Zencense employee would mix XLR-11 with acetone and liquid flavoring, and then apply the chemical mixture to dried plant material.
Next, the employee would mail the compounded mixture to Ritchie and Galecki in Pensacola, Florida, where other workers would place the spice into small retail bags.
The defendants sold their products — with suggestive brand names such as “Bizarro,” “Orgazmo,” “Headhunter,” and “Defcon 5 Total Annihilation” — to smoke shops across the United States, according to authorities.
From June 1 to July 25, 2012, Ritchie and Galecki were responsible for manufacturing and distributing approximately 4,000 pounds of spice, and they made approximately $1.61 million selling XLR-11 spice manufactured in Nevada, officials stated.
In two separate cases, the defendants were each sentenced for money laundering and unlawful monetary transactions.
Ritchie received nine years in federal prison for charges brought in the Southern District of Alabama and nine years in federal prison for charges brought in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Galecki received eight years in federal prison for charges brought in the Southern District of Alabama and eight years in federal prison for charges brought in the Eastern District of Virginia.
All sentences will run concurrently with each other.
Additionally, the defendants were ordered to forfeit approximately $2.5 million as a result of their illegal enterprise in the District of Nevada.