This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Cottonwood Heights man pleaded not guilty Wednesday to running a counterfeit drug operation that prosecutors say is among the largest of its type ever found in the United States.
A federal grand jury earlier indicted Shamo on a charge of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid linked to a spate of overdose deaths. Shamo faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine, as well as forfeiture of more than $1.2 million in cash found at his Cottonwood Heights home and what prosecutors allege is a South Jordan stash house.
Prosecutors say they have a strong case:
• Investigators intercepted packages addressed to Shamo associates who they say were paid by Shamo to receive shipments of the drug from China. One contained 120 grams of fentanyl.
• Nearly 100,000 pills were found at the alleged stash house — three-fourths cast to resemble prescription oxycodone and the rest alprazolam. Officers also found a powdery substance at Shamo's home believed to be fentanyl.
• Shamo was reportedly running one of his three pill presses at the time of the Nov. 22 raid. Another pill press was still in the box, suggesting Shamo "was planning on expanding the operations," Assistant U.S. Attorney Stewart Young said at Shamo's Nov. 28 detention hearing.
Brian Besser, assistant special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Salt Lake City District Office, has described the items seized from the two houses as "merely a peek through the keyhole" at the largest operation of its type seen in Utah.
Prosecutors have said Shamo distributed his pills nationwide and that investigators were still trying to determine whether his product could be linked to specific overdose deaths. Test results for the seized pills and powder are also pending.
Shamo's case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball. A five-day jury trial was set to begin Feb. 13, 2017.
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