A U.S. court has sentenced Nigerian-born Oluwole Adegboruwa, 54, and his accomplice, Enrique Isong, 49, to a total of 40 years in prison for their roles in a multi-million-dollar dark web drug trafficking operation. The sentencing, announced by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah on Friday, comes after a lengthy investigation.
Adegboruwa received a 30-year prison sentence, a lifetime of supervised release, and was ordered to forfeit over $20 million—the largest forfeiture ever in Utah for such crimes. His co-defendant, Isong, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and three years of supervised release.
Court documents revealed that between October 2016 and May 2019, Adegboruwa sold over 300,000 oxycodone pills through dark web marketplaces, generating $9.1 million in illicit proceeds. He managed a sophisticated operation involving sourcing, packaging, and distributing pharmacy-grade pills across the U.S., with payments processed through cryptocurrency accounts.
Adegboruwa admitted to running the dark web operation and managing both the sales and the financial transactions that concealed the operation’s illicit profits.
U.S. Attorney Trina A. Higgins emphasized the importance of dismantling such operations, while DEA Special Agent Jonathan Pullen warned that traffickers can’t hide their activities, even on the dark web. IRS Criminal Investigation’s Carissa Messick noted that the $20 million forfeiture highlights the significant impact of the investigation.
The case was a joint effort by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the DEA, and the IRS Criminal Investigation.
