Los Angeles man among two convicted in Utah opioid trafficking trial

Lina PortmanMay 29, 2024

0 1 minute read

A Los Angeles man was among two defendants convicted in Utah of several federal crimes, including conspiring to distribute oxycodone and money laundering, officials said 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 to 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 cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum, which he then sold for traditional currency, evidence showed.

Adegboruwa admitted that he was the only one who had access to his supplier pages on dark web marketplaces to process customer orders. He then directed his associates in Los Angeles and Las Vegas to package and ship the pills across the United States, the jury found.

Jurors convicted Adegboruwa under what is commonly known as the “kingpin statute” for organizing a continuing criminal enterprise and directing at least five other people in the drug distribution conspiracy.

The jury also heard testimony from co-defendants who have already pleaded guilty. They described how Adegboruwa instructed them to sort, package and ship the oxycodone pills to minimize damage and detection. The jury also heard from a Utah customer who discussed the ordering process on 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 instead of a 2017 Dodge Charger and 26 warrants 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 to be sentenced in August in downtown Salt Lake City, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.