Man accused of selling counterfeit pills in US, runs business from garage-turned-‘lab’ in Connecticut

In an unassuming garage in Connecticut, a New Haven man produced hundreds of thousands of counterfeit pills containing the following: methamphetaminea powerful opioid and other illegal drugs that he shipped across the United States and gave to local dealers to sell on the streets, according to new indictments from a federal grand jury.

Federal law enforcement officials announced criminal charges against the man and six others Monday, calling the case one of the largest seizures of counterfeit pills ever in New England.

Kelldon Hinton, 45, is accused of running the business out of a rented garage he called his “lab” in East Haven, about five miles from downtown New Haven, using drugs and pill presses he bought from vendors in China and other countries, federal authorities said.

Officials said Hinton sent more than 1,300 packages through the U.S. mail to people who purchased the pills on the dark web from February 2023 to February 2024. He also gave pills to associates in Connecticut who sold them to their customers, the charges allege.

The six other people charged are also from Connecticut.

Hinton sold counterfeit oxycodone, Xanax and Adderall pills containing methamphetamine and protonitazene, a synthetic opioid three times more powerful than fentanylfederal officials said. The tablets also contained dimethylpentylone – a designer party drug known to be mislabeled as ecstasy – and xylazinea sedative often called “tranq”.

Hinton and four others were arrested on Sept. 5, the same day authorities raided the East Haven garage and other locations with search warrants. Officials say they seized several hundred thousand pills, two pill presses and equipment used to produce pills. One of the pill presses can produce 100,000 pills per hour, authorities said.

A federal public defender for Hinton did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday.

The investigation involved federal, state and local authorities, including the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and state and local police.

“This investigation highlights the ongoing challenges we face as law enforcement in combating the spread of synthetic opioids in America,” Connecticut U.S. Attorney Vanessa Roberts Avery said in a statement.

Counterfeit prescription pills laced with fentanyl and other powerful opioids are contributing to the high number of overdoses across the country, according to Stephen Belleau, acting special agent in charge of the DEA’s New England division.

“The DEA will aggressively pursue drug trafficking organizations and individuals who distribute this poison for profit and destroy human lives,” he said in a statement.

Authorities said they were tipped off about Hinton in June 2023 by an anonymous source. Law enforcement said they later began searching and seizing packages sent to and from Hinton and set up surveillance that showed him delivering packages to a post office. Detectives also said they ordered counterfeit pills from Hinton’s dark web operation.

In addition to Hinton, prosecutors have also charged: Heshima Harris, 53, of New Haven; Emanuel Payton, 33, of New Haven; Marvin Ogman, 47, of Est Haven; Shawn Stephens, 34, of West Haven; Arnaldo Echevarria, 42, of Waterbury; and Cheryle Tyson, 64, of West Haven. Hinton, Payton and Ogman are currently in custody, while Harris, Stephens, Echevarri and Tyson have been released pending trial.

Hinton has a criminal record dating back to 1997 that includes convictions for assault, robbery and drug trafficking, federal authorities said in a search warrant application.

About 107,500 people died from drug overdoses in the U.S. last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s down 3% from 2022, when there were an estimated 111,000 such deaths, the agency said.

The country’s drug overdose epidemic has claimed more than 1 million lives since 1999.

If “60 Minutes” reported As of Sunday, nearly all of the fentanyl flowing into the U.S. is being produced in Mexico by two powerful drug cartels, using chemicals bought primarily from China. And as you’re about to hear, it’s often hidden in counterfeit pills made to look like prescription drugs. It’s the plague of our time. More than 70,000 Americans died from fentanyl last year, a death toll greater than the U.S. military casualties in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined.