A 26-year-old man from Virginia Beach, Virginia pleaded guilty to charges related to selling fake Xanax pills on the dark web on Friday. Federal investigators allege that Anthony Dimaiuat sold around 968 pills containing clonazolam and/or flubromazolam as a darknet market vendor. The substances are two high potency benzodiazepine analogs that mimic the effects of alprazolam, the active ingredient in Xanax, and do not have known medical use.
Dimaiuat was apprehended in late June after a 16-month investigation conducted by multiple federal agencies. Posing as buyers, investigators had been placing orders for pills labeled as Xanax with the unsuspecting vendor since February 2020.
Packages allegedly sent by Dimaiuat to undercover investigators were labeled with return addresses in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia Beach, allowing them to eventually reveal the vendor’s exact identity.
After a search warrant was executed at the home of Dimaiuat, law enforcement found 2,400 grams worth of “white pills”, as well as “two glass containers with white powder and packaging material.” It was determined that the pills contained the benzodiazepine analogs mentioned above and the “white powder” was a highly-impure cocaine — though it was not clear if that was deemed for sale or personal use.
After a brief incarceration, a Virginia judge granted Dimaiuat’s release while awaiting trial, on the condition that he participated in an evaluation “to assess the presence, nature, (and) severity of substance abuse problem.”
In court, Dimaiuat told investigators that he started buying a different formulation of “fake Xanax” off the dark web a year prior to setting out on his own as a vendor. He admitted to regularly purchasing between 250 and 500 pills at a time, consuming some while reselling the rest.
Though not illegal, clonazolam is active in tiny amounts, capable of causing severe social, psychological, and mental impairment in microscopic doses, with as little as 0.5 mg being enough to cause an overdose.
The specific law violated by darknet market vendors like Dimaiuat who sell fake prescription drugs fall under the Introduction Into Interstate Commerce of Misbranded Drugs With the Intent to Defraud and Mislead federal statutes.
Dimaiuat is scheduled to be sentenced next Thursday.