TULSA, Okla. – Two Tulsans were sentenced for selling illegal drugs on the dark web that were purchased from China, announced U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson.
U.S. District Judge Sara E. Hill sentenced Aaron Michael Thomas, 42, for Introduction of Misbranded Drug into Interstate Commerce, Maintaining a Drug-Involved Premises for the distribution of Pregabalin, and Possession of Child Pornography.
Judge Hill ordered Thomas to 78 months imprisonment followed by 10 years of supervised release.
According to court documents, in 2022, the Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service opened an investigation into an illegal vendor selling drugs on the dark web. The vendor was suspected to be one of the largest illegal prescription drug vendors in the country. Drugs were being sold without the requirement of a prescription, and paid for via cryptocurrency. They were packaged with misleading and false labeling and did not have warnings or directions for safe use.
Law enforcement discovered the packages were being shipped by Thomas and his co-defendant, Darren Doil Means, from their home in Tulsa. Undercover agents successfully made three undercover purchases. In October 2023, law enforcement executed a search warrant where agents seized more than 270 pounds of 21 different drugs or active pharmaceutical ingredients, including pregabalin and xylazine.
Thomas and Means had a room outfitted as a packaging and distribution center for their operation. Agents also found encapsulating devices for making drug capsules and misleading drug labels. The electronic devices recovered showed that Thomas illegally purchased all of the drugs from vendors in the People’s Republic of China and that he took deliberate steps to avoid detection by U.S. Customs when shipping the drugs into the United States. Additionally, the agents discovered numerous images of children engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
Means, 59, pled guilty to Introduction of Misbranded Drug into Interstate Commerce and Maintaining a Drug-Involved Premises. In January 2025, Judge Hill sentenced Means to three years of probation.
Thomas will remain in custody pending transfer to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – Office of Criminal Investigations, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, FDA Office of Chief Counsel, Consumer Protection Branch, Tulsa Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, and FBI Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nathan E. Michel, Aaron M. Jolly, and Reagan V. Reininger prosecuted the case.