SAN FRANCISCO — Two Bay Area men have been charged with distributing methamphetamine, after investigators linked them to a site on the dark web that mailed fake Adderall containing methamphetamine to customers, court records show.
Andrew and Tony Tam were charged with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, a federal charge that carries a penalty of up to 40 years in prison and a $5 million fine. Authorities linked both men to an account called ADDERALL123 and were investigating possible links to a third person, the criminal complaint says.
The investigation started in April 2021; soon after, undercover agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration began targeting the account with orders for Adderall pills. The account offered various quantities of 30 milligram pills of the prescription drug, which is used to treat ADHD.
In September 2021, for instance, agents bought 200 pills from the account and conducted a test on them, which showed they were positive for methamphetamine, according to the criminal complaint. Police tracked one of the shipments from the account to a post office in Daly City, and used surveillance footage to identify the sender as Andrew Tan, according to the criminal complaint.
Later that month, agents staked out post offices in San Bruno, San Francisco, and Daly City and spotted Tan once again mailing a package. They linked his Subaru to an address in San Francisco, and agents subsequently searched his iCloud storage account, the complaint alleges.
In it, “agents observed a video, dated June 16, 2020, which shows Tony Tan sitting in an indoor location, taking orange circular pills from a large clear zip lock bag and sliding the pills onto a white piece of paper. The pills in the video match the appearance of the counterfeit Adderall pills pressed with methamphetamine that agents have purchased,” a DEA agent wrote in the complaint.
Both men are family members, the complaint says, but it doesn’t specify beyond that. They’ve both been released from jail while the charges are pending, and have waived their right to speedy pretrial hearings, records show.
Source: www.mercurynews.com