Was accused Utah drug seller the ‘pharma master’ or ’ultimate fool’?

SALT LAKE CITY — Aaron Shamo made himself into the “pharma master.”

The 29-year-old Cottonwood Heights man sold whatever drugs people were willing to buy on the darknet, from his own Adderall to the hundreds of thousands of fentanyl-laced fake oxycodone pills pressed in his basement, including those that led to an overdose death, federal prosecutors say.

“More money, more money, more money became Aaron Shamo’s reason for being,” assistant U.S. attorney Vernon Stejskal told jurors. “Mr. Shamo was living the dream. He had become the pharma master.”

A 12-person jury began deliberating Thursday after attorneys made closing arguments in the nearly three-week trial in U.S. District Court. Deliberations are scheduled to resume Friday morning.

Shamo is accused of making powerful painkillers and shipping them around the country in a drug trafficking operation that resulted in the overdose death of 21-year-old Ruslan Klyuev, of Daly City, California. Shamo is on trial for charges alleging he made millions of dollars from sales of fake oxycodone laced with fentanyl from China and counterfeit Xanax tablets.

“Aaron Shamo could be considered the face of the opioid epidemic,” Stejskal said.

There’s no question Shamo was the leader of the operation, said special assistant U.S. attorney Michael Gadd. He read a note Shamo wrote to himself saying, “I am Shamo. I am awesome. My friends love me. I have created an empire.”

“And so he did,” Gadd said, “but at what cost?”

Defense attorney Greg Skordas has acknowledged that Shamo committed crimes in selling the drugs on the darknet, a corner of the internet sometimes used for illegal activity, but that he did not cause anyone’s death and was not a kingpin.

Shamo, he said, was the “ultimate fool” who “got played like no other.”

Two co-defendants, Drew Crandall and Luke Paz, who cut plea deals with prosecutors and testified against Shamo, were integral parts of the operation, Skordas said. Shamo was the one who was conned the most, and his friends “set him up perfectly” when the police moved in. He described Shamo as a “dummy” and a “moron” who couldn’t cut it in college.

“He’s a follower. He’s a pleaser. He’s a glad-hander. He’s a yes man. He’ll do anything these kids will tell him to because he wants to be friends,” he said.

Shamo thought he was helping people in pain buy medication that they couldn’t afford, Skordas said.

“He convinces himself through these wizards that he’s making the world a better place,” he said. “Boy, did he get hit in the face when he went to jail.”

Skordas said the government made Shamo the fall guy. Prosecutors handed Shamo’s six co-defendants — none of whom were charged with distributing fentanyl resulting in death or heading a criminal enterprise — a script of what to say on the witness stand.

“It’s the government’s truth, but not the truth,” he said,

Gadd denied that prosecutors coached witnesses or fabricated evidence.

“No one’s getting out from under this, no one,” he said.

“Death, drugs and money are still why we’re here,” Stejskal told jurors, repeating a line prosecutors used in their opening statement.

Related

Accused Utah drug trafficker — 'with money comes greed'

SALT LAKE CITY — Aaron Shamo just wanted to help a friend when he started selling a drug for ADHD on the dark web.

Shamo callously made dangerous pills and sold them to faceless customers like Klyuev, the prosecutor said. Although Klyuev was a troubled young man who made poor choices, he would not have died but for the fentanyl Shamo sold him, Stejskal said.

“This was not a faceless name on an order sheet. His name was Ruslan Klyuev. His friends called him Russ,” he said.

Skordas said Klyuev had alcohol, cocaine metabolites, deworming medication (used to cut cocaine) and small amount of fentanyl in his system, and that the medical examiner in California determined he died from multiple drug intoxication. He said it’s unknown whether the fentanyl came from Shamo.

“Aaron Shamo is not responsible for that kid’s death. To say otherwise is misunderstanding the evidence in the case,” he told the jury.

Shamo testified Tuesday that he used trial and error to perfect the fake pills.

“Think of what error means in this context,” Stejskal asked jurors.

Shamo did extensive online research on fentanyl, pill presses, punches and dyes, ingredients, selling on the darknet, how to make and ship drugs and money laundering, the prosecutor said. He “tested” the pills on customers and obsessed about getting feedback in what were “basically human trials,” the prosecutor said. Shamo, he said, knew the drugs were not helping people with pain as he had testified, but helping them get high.

Shamo’s response to complaints about a bad batch of pills was to send more pills because the cost of making them was negligible, Stejskal said.

In November 2016, after conducting surveillance on Shamo for weeks, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and local police raided his home where they seized $1.2 million in cash from a sock drawer. He had another $429,000 stashed at his parents’ house. Shamo was pressing Xanax pill in his basement at the time of his arrest.

Agents also later seized 513 bitcoins from Shamo’s online wallet, valued at an estimated $2.4 million.

Shamo frequently gambled in Las Vegas losing thousands of dollars. He took trips to the Caribbean, Puerto Rico and Mexico, where he considered buying houses. He bought designer clothes, a friend’s 2008 BMW and another friend’s $42,000 truck. He said he also tried to “be more mature” and bought some furniture.

The jury will decide Shamo’s guilt or innocence on 13 criminal counts.

He is charged with continuing a criminal enterprise; three counts of importation of a controlled substance; possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute; distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death; and manufacture of a controlled substance.

He is also charged with adulteration of drugs while held for sale; use of the U.S. mail in furtherance of drug trafficking offense; money laundering; money laundering promotion and concealment; and engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from unlawful activity.

Related topics