Man who sold fake Xanax in Kentucky and took pay in cryptocurrency sentenced
A man charged in Kentucky with taking part in a scheme to sell fake anti-anxiety pills valued at more than $25 million has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison.
Alessandro Sabbagh also owes $5 million to the federal government under the sentence.
Sabbagh, 27, took part in a conspiracy to make and sell counterfeit alprazolam pills. Xanax is one common name for the drug.
Sabbagh and others made pills stamped with markings to make them look like the real thing, but used ingredients that have no accepted medical use in the U.S., according to his plea agreement.
Sabbagh helped sell the pills on the darknet, or dark web, an area of the internet not accessible through regular search engines such as Google and Bing, and which is often used for criminal activity.
The conspirators took payment in cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin, according to the court record.
Sabbagh and others sold the fake pills throughout the country, but police pursued cases against them in Kentucky based on crimes here.
The indictment listed pill sales in Clay and Laurel counties, for instance.
The agencies involved in the investigation were the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Manchester Police Department, according to a news release.
Sabbagh was arrested in Switzerland in December 2023 and had been in custody since, according to the court record.
U.S District Judge Robert E. Wier sentenced him on April 11 in federal court in London, Ky.
