In a nondescript garage in Connecticut, a New Haven man manufactured hundreds of thousands of counterfeit pills containing methamphetaminea powerful opioid and other illicit drugs that he shipped across the United States and gave to local dealers to sell on the streets, according to new federal grand jury indictments.
Federal law enforcement officials announced criminal charges against the man and six others Monday, calling it one of the largest seizures of counterfeit pills ever in New England.
Kelldon Hinton, 45, is accused of running the operation from a rented garage he called his “lab” in East Haven, about 5 miles from downtown New Haven, using drugs and pill presses he purchased from vendors in China and other countries, federal authorities said.
Authorities said Hinton sent more than 1,300 packages through U.S. Postal Service to people who purchased the pills on the dark web between February 2023 and February 2024. He also gave pills to associates in Connecticut who sold them to their customers, according to the indictments.
The other six people charged are also from Connecticut.
Hinton was selling counterfeit oxycodone, Xanax and Adderall pills that contained methamphetamine and protonitazene, a synthetic opioid three times more potent than methamphetamine. fentanylfederal officials said. The pills also contained dimethylpentylone — a designer drug known to be mislabeled as ecstasy — and xylazinea tranquilizer often called “tranq.”
Hinton and four others were arrested Sept. 5, the same day authorities raided the East Haven garage and other premises with search warrants. Authorities say they seized several hundred thousand pills, two pill presses and pill-making equipment. One of the pill presses can produce 100,000 pills per hour, authorities said.
U.S. Attorney’s Office for Connecticut via AP
A federal public defender for Hinton did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday.
Federal, state and local authorities were involved in the investigation, including the Connecticut U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and state and local police.
“This investigation reveals the ongoing challenges we as law enforcement face in combating the proliferation of synthetic opioids in America,” Connecticut U.S. Attorney Vanessa Roberts Avery said in a statement.
Counterfeit prescription pills containing fentanyl and other powerful opioids are contributing to a high number of overdoses across the country, said Stephen Belleau, acting special agent in charge of the DEA’s New England Field Division.
“The DEA will aggressively pursue drug trafficking organizations and individuals who distribute this poison to profit and destroy human lives,” he said in a statement.
Authorities said they were tipped off to Hinton by an anonymous source in June 2023. Law enforcement said they then began searching for and seizing packages sent to and from Hinton and set up surveillance that showed him dropping off packages at a post office. Investigators also said they ordered fake pills from Hinton’s dark web operation.
In addition to Hinton, prosecutors also charged: Heshima Harris, 53, of New Haven; Emanuel Payton, 33, of New Haven; Marvin Ogman, 47, of East 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 are free pending trial.
Hinton has a criminal record dating back to 1997 that includes convictions for assault, robbery and drug sales, federal authorities said in a search warrant application.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 107,500 people died from overdoses in the United States last year. That’s a 3% decrease from 2022, when there were an estimated 111,000 such deaths, the agency said.
The country’s overdose epidemic has killed more than a million people since 1999.
As “60 Minutes” reported As of Sunday, nearly all of the fentanyl coming into the United States is manufactured in Mexico by two powerful drug cartels, with chemicals purchased primarily from China. And as you’ll hear, it’s often disguised in counterfeit pills designed to look like prescription drugs. It’s the scourge of our time. Last year, more than 70,000 Americans died from fentanyl, a toll greater than the U.S. military losses in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan combined.
