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A jury in federal court reached a guilty verdict on several felony charges against a man in Utah, accused of running and maintaining a pill-pressing operation that distributed fentanyl-laced opioids across the country.
Aaron Shamo, 29, will spend his life in prison after being found guilty of running a "continuing criminal enterprise," which carries a mandatory life sentence. He has also been persuaded to have a controlled substance, and to have a controlled substance after the jury of 12 out of 13 charges.
Shamo and others were implicated in the drug crimes of China, then pressing them into pills and distributing them over the "dark web." Defense attorney for Shamo Greg Skordas said he was trying to avoid the life sentence by proving to the jury that his client was not the ringleader of the group of friends who manufactured and sold the drugs.
"He's just a kid," Skordas said, "and he never thinks he'll never have another meal, never go on a date, never watch his child be born, he's 29 years old and his life is over. . "
The jury was hung on only one conviction involving Shamo's responsibility in the overdose of a 21-year-old man in California.
U.S. Assistant Attorney Vernon Stejska said to the jury in his closing remarks that Shamo was responsible for the need for pain and suffering as a perpetrator of the opioid crisis in the United States.
"Aaron Shamo knew the nation was on fire, and over and over, never getting burned himself, but pain and misery wherever his fire spread," he said. "Aaron Shamo could be considered for the opioid epidemic." He was a benefited, callously making millions of dollars and living a life of pleasure while exploiting those suffering through opioid addiction.
Skordas said that his client does not want to be convinced of his conviction. His official sentence is set for Dec. 3.
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