DA: Thousands of pills seized during investigation of international drug sales

 

Thousands of pills were seized from a home in Anderson County during an investigation of prescription pills being shipped into the United States for distribution, possibly from Internet sales from international sources, authorities said Monday.

Three people have been indicted and arrested in the case. One was detained overseas this month, in the international airport in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, said Dave Clark, Seventh Judicial District attorney general.

The apprehension of Moshin Agha, 30, of India, was reported first by Oak Ridge Today on Monday. In a press release Monday afternoon, Clark said Agha, who had been entered into a national police database, was located at the international airport in Dubai sometime in the late evening of Friday, July 13, or early the next morning.

Agha’s co-defendants, Shelley Dawn Hicks Robbins, 44, and Gene McKinley Miller, 43, both of Anderson County, have already pleaded guilty in the case.

Clark said the investigation began in September 2016. It was led by the Seventh Judicial District Crime Task Force in Anderson County with help from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

As part of that investigation, the Seventh Judicial District Crime Task Force obtained a search warrant for a home in Anderson County. Robbins and Miller have an address near Interstate 75 in Anderson County, although it’s not clear if that’s where the search took place. Thousands of pills were seized during the search, Clark said.

Robbins, Miller, and Agha were indicted by the Anderson County Grand Jury in Clinton on November 1, 2016, on seven counts of felony drug possession with the intent to sell, one felony count of money laundering, and another felony count of conspiracy to possess drugs for sale, the press release said.

The nine-count indictment said they possessed, with the intent to sell, these controlled substances: Zolpidem, Tramodol, Lorazepam, Clonazepam, Carisoprodol, Sibutramine, and Diazepam.

Robbins and Miller were arrested earlier, before pleading guilty in Anderson County Criminal Court on February 2.

But Agha had never been taken into custody, Clark said. The DA placed the charges against Agha into the national police database. There were no results until sometime around Friday, July 13.

“At that time, Agha was located at the international airport in Dubai seeking to travel using his passport and identity,” Clark said.

Clark, the Department of Homeland Security, and Simon Byrne, acting director of the Crime Task Force, made arrangements to transport Agha to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, where he was taken into custody by the New York Port Authority Police and held as a fugitive from justice for the Anderson County authorities, the press release said.

The Anderson County Sheriff’s Department transported Agha to Clinton last week and is holding him in the Anderson County Detention Facility. He is being held on a $150,000 bond, which also requires that he surrender his passport. He is currently scheduled for arraignment before Judge Don Elledge in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on July 30.

The Seventh Judicial District Crime Task Force is an independent law enforcement agency formed by Anderson County municipal police departments, the Sheriff’s Department, and the district attorney general. The Crime Task Force is funded primarily by grants as well as seizures of criminal proceeds, the press release said.

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