Oluwole Adegboruwa, a 54-year-old from Las Vegas, Nevada, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role as the mastermind behind a significant dark web drug trafficking operation. Alongside the prison term, Adegboruwa faces lifetime supervised release and must forfeit over $20 million. This forfeiture is one of the largest recorded by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah.
U.S. District Court Judge Jill N. Parish handed down the sentence following a jury's conviction of Adegboruwa and his co-defendant Enrique Isong in May 2024. The charges included conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and money laundering. Isong, aged 49 from Los Angeles, California, received a ten-year prison sentence with an additional three years of supervised release on October 23, 2024.
The court documents revealed that between October 2016 and May 2019, Adegboruwa sold over 300,000 oxycodone pills through dark web platforms across the United States. The jury concluded that he orchestrated a criminal enterprise generating approximately $9 million in drug proceeds. His responsibilities included managing sales on dark web markets and controlling monetary accounts, including those involving cryptocurrency transactions.
"Protecting the community from illicit drugs and dismantling drug trafficking operations is a priority for my office and our law enforcement partners," stated U.S. Attorney Trina A. Higgins of the District of Utah.
"This case further demonstrates that true anonymity on the dark web is a myth," commented Glen Henderson from U.S. Postal Inspection Services State Phoenix Division.
DEA Rocky Mountain Field Division Special Agent Jonathan Pullen remarked on Adegboruwa's complex criminal enterprise: "This sentencing is a stark reminder that the DEA is relentless in pursuit of justice."
Carissa Messick from IRS Criminal Investigation highlighted money laundering as an investigative priority: "The forfeiture amount in this case alone highlights...IRS-CI’s relentless commitment to uncovering illegal schemes by following the money."
The investigation was conducted by multiple agencies including USPIS, DEA, and IRS-CI under an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation led by Assistant United States Attorneys Thaddeus J. May, Jennifer E. Gully, and Stewart M. Young.
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