In Nov. 2022, law enforcement in Massachusetts raided an illicit operation believed to be the origin of 100 mail parcels containing counterfeit and misbranded prescription pills.
At the location in the Commonwealth, undisclosed by court documents, investigators came upon three industrial-sized pill press machines and more than 26 pounds of pills and powder testing positive for fentanyl.
Two years later, that discovery is now the impetus for a new federal criminal case in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts. It positions the Bay State-based clandestine operation as a supplier to two international online pharmacy websites — and the reason law enforcement found them.
Authorities this week announced the arrest of a California man believed to be the stateside payment processor for the pharmacies. Jimmy Fu, 63, of West Hills, is facing a money laundering charge and up to 20 years in prison for purportedly processing $11.5 million in payments from customers across the U.S. on behalf of the counterfeit pharmacies.
The charge claims Fu would wire the proceeds from the illegal purchases to various entities overseas identifying as “information technology consulting businesses.”
Fu, doing business as “Axson Data,” was arrested on Oct. 30. He made an initial video appearance in federal court in Boston this week.
In early October, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration issued a national public safety alert about an increase in illegal online pharmacies selling counterfeit pills made with fentanyl and methamphetamine to “unsuspecting customers in the United States who believe they are purchasing real pharmaceutical drugs.”
Building a case
In the Massachusetts-based case, multiple branches of law enforcement have been investigating the two online pharmacies, believed to be operating out of India, for two years. Customer orders were filled by illicit pill press locations operating in the U.S., including the one in Massachusetts, as well as via shipments from overseas locations, authorities say.
Police said Fu’s role as the payment processor was “designed to obfuscate the true operators of the websites’ network.”
Some of the pills obtained through undercover purchases in the case — such as Adderall, phentermine and Xanax “imprinted with markings consistent with genuine pharmaceutical pills” — contained illicit drugs, while others didn’t have any active pharmaceutical ingredient at all, according to police.
Customers from around the country paid Fu money ranging from “hundreds to thousands of dollars” using Venmo, Zelle, Cash App and PayPal, court documents show. The affidavit for Fu’s arrest written by Patrick Martin, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, identifies a customer in Carlisle, Massachusetts, for example, alongside others from New York and Washington.
The two websites are not named in court documents because the investigation remains ongoing, police said.
In a months-long investigation published last month, MassLive identified at least 25 cities and towns in the Commonwealth where profit-driven pill press operations have been discovered or suspected over the last five years.
The machines, which quickly press powder into tablets, have emerged as a tool for drug manufacturers to swiftly feed the counterfeit pill market while maximizing profits. The pills most often appear as oxycodone, Adderall and Xanax, but are actually made with fentanyl or methamphetamine.
‘I ordered Adderall… it’s pressed meth’
After police executed their search warrant at the unnamed Massachusetts pill press location in Nov. 2022, they spoke with people who were supposed to receive the packages deriving from the operation, according to court documents.
The customers identified to law enforcement the two websites in question as where they’d ordered prescription medications such as Adderall and Modafinil, without a prescription.
On both websites, law enforcement saw prescription drug offerings to “treat, mitigate, and/or cure a variety of diseases, including COVID-19, erectile dysfunction, the flu, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.” Some of the advertised drugs included Ivermectin, Adderall, Viagra, Cialis, phentermine, Prednisone and Periostat.
Between Jan. 2023 and Aug. 2024, police placed 17 undercover orders and had them shipped to a covert mailbox in Massachusetts. The return addresses on the packages included Florida, Georgia, Texas, the Philippines and Netherlands.
A photo included in court documents shows text communications between Jimmy Fu and a pharmacy customer who tested their shipment and found it was positive for methamphetamine.U.S. District Attorney’s Office of Massachusetts
Some of the orders tested positive for methamphetamine, synthetic opioids and other cocktails of controlled substances, court documents said. All were determined to be counterfeit.
After law enforcement identified Fu’s apparent association with the online pharmacies, a judge signed a search warrant for his iPhone, which yielded text communications with a customer who had drug-tested their purchase and found methamphetamine.
“I ordered Adderall… I got this… it’s pressed meth… I said if they don’t have real Adderall I would take 20mg Ritalin to replace. They refused unless I sent these back (which is highly illegal),” the customer wrote to Fu.
