The Internet trafficker who caused the death of 11 people due to a mistake with a batch of drugs

“Your disregard for human life is terrifying”, Superior Judge Susan Richard Nelson told him during the sentencing of Aaron R. Broussard, a man who caused the deaths of 11 people in USA after selling them drugs that actually contained a deadly drug.

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Between 2014 and 2016, Broussard, then 25, bought illegal drugs smuggled into the US from China and then sold them through his website, called PlantFoodUSA.net.

From a rented apartment in Hopkins, Minnesota, Broussard made “hundreds of transactions” of this type, according to the authorities.

As part of its operations, on March 12, 2016, it placed an order for 100 grams of 4-FA, similar to Adderall, a drug prescribed to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or narcolepsy.

However, Broussard’s distributors failed to warn him that the shipment they were sending him contained 100 grams of 99% pure fentanyl.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 100 times more powerful than morphine and 50 times more dangerous than heroin, causing an overdose with just 2 milligrams.

That is, a dose similar to the size of a grain of salt could cause the death of whoever ingests it.

Despite this, it has become one of the most consumed drugs in the United States in recent years and, according to the authorities, it would be the main responsible for the marked increase in deaths due to overdoses in that country.

According to the Commission to Combat Trafficking in Synthetic Opioids, between June 2020 and May 2021, more than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, and about two-thirds of those deaths were due to synthetic opioids.

Broussard bought drugs from Chinese suppliers that were smuggled into the United States and then offered them through his website: PlantFoodUSA.net. (Shutterstock/)

VICTIMS OF BROUSSARD

Dozens of people bought the products offered by Broussard thinking they would receive a drug to treat their various conditions. Instead, they received packaged death.

Between April and May 2016, US authorities determined during Broussard’s trial, he distributed the pills that killed 11 of his clients and caused serious physical damage to four others.

The cases occurred in almost the entire country, with deaths recorded in the states of California, New York, Illinois, Florida, Wisconsin, Texas, Kentucky, among others.

According to the prosecutors who charged Broussard, he had been warned by his suppliers that he should test the drugs before distributing them. However, based on the investigation against him, the trafficker did not always comply with this requirement.

Authorities say the victims were not opioid users, so taking the drugs Broussard sent caused instant death in many cases.

Although Broussard learned that some of his clients had been hospitalized and others had already died, he continued to sell the drugs from the same batch until it ran out.

According to the investigators, the man would have even demanded a discount from his suppliers for the next shipment due to the effects of the deadly batch.

Some of the victims were identified as Patrick Reinsma, Daniel Flynn, Stephen Fry, Timothy Robertson, Matthew Williams, Devon Masik, Jason Beddow, Scott Beimel, Craig Karp, Vamsi Prasad and Amanda Leach, according to what was known in the process against Broussard.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 100 times more powerful than morphine and 50 times more dangerous than heroin. As little as 2 milligrams can cause an overdose. (DON EMMERT / AFP /)

HEARTBREAKING TESTIMONIES

“I am 75 years old and I will have no consolation knowing for the rest of my life that I will never see my son again. Patrick was my youngest son and my only son. He traveled a lot for his work, so usually on his way home at night, he would call me, one of his sisters, or his friends.”, Reinsma’s mother wrote in a letter sent to the court where Broussard was being tried and was picked up by Univision.

“He was intelligent, good at everything he did, he gave himself completely to everything because he wanted to do it well. He was funny, with a dry sense of humor, like his father. He had the sparkle in his father’s eyes, when he looked at you sometimes he made you wonder what he was thinking. Kind, quiet, a little shy, generous, he loved to read and draw, and he knew how to use a computer”, reported Flynn’s parents, through the same medium.

“Stephen was extremely intelligent, often described as brilliant by his teachers. A Georgia Tech University professor spoke at his funeral and said that in 45 years of teaching chemistry, he had never had a student as committed as Stephen”, wrote the father of Fry, another of the victims.

Theodore Trotman, who survived the intake of fentanyl but was left with serious physical consequences, explained that he had suffered a cardiac arrest for 8 minutes that caused an anoxic brain injury, loss of sight and the ability to speak, in addition to generating secondary parkinsonism.

BROUSSARD BEFORE THE JUSTICE

In December 2016, the US Attorney’s Office indicted Broussard on 17 counts including conspiracy, importation of fentanyl, possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, distribution of fentanyl resulting in death, distribution of fentanyl resulting in serious bodily injury, and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl. intent to distribute analogs of controlled substances (legal drugs), according to the Department of Justice.

In December 2020, the defendant pleaded guilty. Broussard had been sent to prison as a young man for a robbery case and when he was older he served another sentence for carrying articles for the consumption of marijuana and driving without a license.

The now 31-year-old’s attorney, Todd Hennen, noted however that his client “He has never been a violent person (…) Mr. Broussard has essentially changed his life. He went from being a high school dropout to someone with a diploma who wants to become a sound engineer or pursue an education in journalism…he intends to work and go to school”.

On March 31 of this year, after a 10-day hearing, Judge Nelson found Broussard guilty of the 17 charges filed against him. In mid-September, the magistrate handed down a life sentence for his crimes.

Source: Elcomercio