William Panzera, a North Haledon man, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Thursday for running a fentanyl distribution and money laundering conspiracy that moved over a metric ton of fentanyl-related substances from China into New Jersey between 2014 and 2020, stated. His network paid Chinese suppliers using Bitcoin and wire transfers and sold drugs in bulk and as counterfeit pills.
A federal jury convicted Panzera last year of conspiring to distribute furanyl fentanyl and 4-fluoroisobutyryl fentanyl and of international promotional money laundering, stated. The scheme spanned six years and supplied communities across New Jersey.
The case highlights crypto’s growing role in cross-border drug payments. Chainalysis reported one China-based trading group received about $37.8 million in crypto from 2018 to 2023.
Investigators say informal Chinese banking networks help convert crypto to cash for suppliers. Nick Carlsen, a senior TRM Labs investigator, called these middlemen critical to the trade and said, “All the people taking Ethereum and turning it into Bitcoin through Thorchain and services like that are third parties.”
Eight other defendants have pleaded guilty in related cases, showing the network’s scale. (Ed. note: these synthetic opioids are widely described as deadly.)
