| Man Who Sold
Fentanyl on Alpha Bay Pled Guilty Pro Se
Now Gets 15 Year in White Plains
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
July 30 – Chukwuemeka
Okparaeke pleaded guilty on
October 15, 2020 to importing
and distributing fentanyl
analogs, and to lying to
authorities that his Bitcoin
wallet had been hacked before
agreeing to forfeiture.
U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Magistrate Judge Paul E.
Davison conducted the two hour
long change of plea proceeding
by CourtCall on October 15.
Inner City Press covered
it.
Okparaeke
represented himself pro se,
with a stand-by counsel. He
had agreed to a plea agreement
for at least 210 months, as
well as the forfeiture.
Judge Davison asked Okparaeke
if he had been coersed into
pleading
guilty.
Okparaeke replied that the
criminal justice system is
inherently coersive, but
no.
Okparaeke
emphasized that he had never
heard of one of the analogs
his Alpha Bay product was
deemed substantially similar
to.
After a
break-down with his stand-by
counsel, he slightly modified
the plea - but emphasized that
the packages from Hong Kong he
tried to pick up did not, in
fact, contain any controlled
substances.
The plea
was deemed sufficient.
And now on July
30, 2021, CHUKWUEMEKA
OKPARAEKE, a/k/a “Emeka,” was
sentenced to 180 months in
prison for importing and
trafficking fentanyl analogues
and other synthetic opioids
through the dark web.
OKPARAEKE previously pled
guilty to distributing
U-47700, a controlled
substance analogue of AH-7921;
importing 100 grams and more
of acryl fentanyl, a
controlled substance analogue
of fentanyl, from Hong Kong;
and making false statements to
the Government regarding the
proceeds of his
offenses. Through his
guilty plea, OKPARAEKE
admitted that in November
2016, he sold U-47700 to an
18-year-old individual, who
died from an overdose after
using the drug.
OKPARAEKE further admitted
that his narcotics offenses
involved over 9 kilograms of
acryl fentanyl, nearly 6
kilograms of U-47700, over a
kilogram of furanyl fentanyl,
as well as 12 grams of
4-ANPP. OKPARAEKE was
sentenced in White Plains
federal court by U.S. District
Judge Nelson S. Román, who
previously accepted
OKPARAEKE’s guilty plea.
The case is US v.
Okparaeke, 17-cr-225 (Roman /
Davison)
***
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