Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) investigation leads to dismantling of dark web drug trafficking organization

CINCINNATI – Three defendants were convicted and sentenced in the Southern District of Ohio as part of a law enforcement operation against a dark web drug trafficking organization. The coordinated multinational operation led to arrests of key members of the group in Florida, North Carolina, and Medellin, Colombia. Between July 2017 and May 2023, the Undertaker45 drug trafficking organization operated as a sophisticated, transnational criminal enterprise that used the dark web marketplaces DarkMarket, White House, Dark0de, Dark0de Reborn and ASAP, along with encrypted messaging platforms like Wickr and Telegram, to distribute: (1) counterfeit OxyContin pills that actually contained fentanyl; and (2) counterfeit Adderall pills that actually contained methamphetamine. The organization was led from Medellín, Colombia, and supported by U.S.-based cell leaders in Miami, Florida, and Charlotte, North Carolina. In Cincinnati, Cesar Augusto Olmos Usaquen, 51; Juan Carlos Carroll Borrero, 43; and Eduardo Villarroel Bellorin, 37; were prosecuted for participating in the drug and money laundering conspiracies. According to court documents, Olmos Usaquen led the organization from Medellin, Colombia, where he ran the organization’s dark web presence. This included taking orders over the dark web and coordinating the shipment of counterfeit pills with his co-defendants. In Miami, Carroll Borrero was responsible for receiving bulk shipments of counterfeit pills and then distributing those pills throughout the United States to the organization’s clients. The pills were commonly shipped in old DVD cases to avoid detection. Villaroel Bellorin worked in North Carolina. There, he received bulk pill shipments and provided them to Carroll Borrero for further distribution. Villaroel Bellorin also coordinated the group’s money laundering efforts. The group received payments in cryptocurrency, largely bitcoin, before moving those funds through a variety of wallets to avoid law enforcement detection and eventually withdraw the funds in fiat currency. In all, the group sold approximately 40 kilograms of methamphetamine and fentanyl pills and laundered $2.5 million in drug proceeds. Usaquen and Borrero were each sentenced to 90 months in prison. Bellorin received a term of imprisonment of 38 months in prison. Dominick S. Gerace II, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Jason Cromartie, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Cincinnati Division; Joseph O. Dixon, Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); and Mason Police Chief Levi Wells; and officials with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, Department of Justice Office of International Affairs, Colombian National Police and DEA Colombia announced the sentences imposed. Assistant United States Attorney Frederic C. Shadley is representing the United States in this case. This case part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF Cincinnati comprises agents and officers from federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. # # #