SALT LAKE CITY, Utah
After a two-week trial, a federal jury in Salt Lake City returned a guilty verdict against two foreign nationals on all counts. It returned a special verdict form requiring the forfeiture of $380,395.64 in cash.
On May 20, 2024, Oluwole Adegboruwa, 54, from Las Vegas, Nevada, and Enrique Isong, 49, from Los Angeles, California, were convicted on several federal charges. These included conspiracies to distribute oxycodone and to commit money laundering. Throughout their criminal activities, Adegboruwa and Isong utilized the U.S. Mail and interstate commerce, amassing over $8 million in illicit proceeds.
According to trial evidence, Oluwole Adegboruwa sold over 300,000 oxycodone pills to customers on dark web marketplaces like Hansa, Dream Market, Wall Street Market, and Alphabay.
Since then, authorities have closed down all markets.
Operating under the pseudonyms “King Odua” and “Alagbada726,” Adegboruwa accepted payments in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which he subsequently exchanged for traditional currency.
Adegboruwa testified at trial and admitted that he was the only one with access to his vendor pages on the dark web markets to process customer orders. He then directed others in Las Vegas and Los Angeles to package and ship the pills around the United States.
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.
At trial, the jury also heard testimony from co-defendants who have already pleaded guilty. They described how Adegboruwa directed them to sort, package, and ship oxycodone pills to minimize 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 Adegboruwa and Isong on all counts, they returned a special verdict form on May 22, 2024, requiring Adegboruwa to forfeit $380,395.64 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.
Adegboruwa and Isong are scheduled for sentencing in August 2024 at the Orrin G. Hatch United States District Courthouse in downtown Salt Lake City.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) are jointly investigating the case.
Assistant United States Attorneys Thaddeus J. May, Jennifer E. Gully, and Stewart M. Young of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah are prosecuting the case.