A Texas man was sentenced Monday to time served (two years) for selling designer drugs manufactured in Kansas.
U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said Michael Myers, 37, Montgomery, Texas, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud.
Myers was indicted in April 2014 along with co-defendants Tracy Picanso and Roy Ehrett, the owners of an Olathe-based business that produced and sold dangerous controlled substances and controlled substance analogs of THC (the active ingredient in marijuana) and methcathinones (stimulants). Picanso and Ehrett are awaiting sentencing.
Picanso and Ehrett sold products to distributors under names including Pump It, Head Trip, Black Arts, Grave Digger, Voodoo Doll and Lights Out. Some of the counterfeit drugs were manufactured in buckets with drill-powered immersion mixers and tried out on “testers” who helped tweak the recipes.
Myers and co-defendant Michelle Reulet lived together in Houston, Texas, and owned and operated Bully Wholesale, an independent wholesaler and distributor of products purchased from Picanso and Ehrett.
Ehrett routinely traveled from Kansas City to Houston to pick up cash from Reulet and Myers. On at least two occasions Myers met Ehrett in Oklahoma to transfer in excess of $100,000 cash to him. Investigators collected emails and text messages exchanged among the defendants. In an October 2011 email, for instance, Myers claimed the fake weed he was selling would not show up on a drug test. In a January 2012 email to Ehrett, Myers says he and Reulet were buying $600,000 to $900,000 worth of products each month from Ehrett and Picanso.