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At least 13 people, including former and current University of Texas students, have been charged in connection with a drug trafficking operation that authorities say sold counterfeit prescription drugs laced with fentanyl and methamphetamine to college students in Central Texas.

Gregg Sofer, a U.S. attorney for the Justice Department, said the group sold what University of Texas students in Austin and San Antonio thought were prescription Adderall or Xanax but were instead counterfeit medication.

“Many of the pills before you are camouflaged as legitimate and regulated prescription medication,” Sofer said, pointing to a stash of pills officials seized during a drug raid on Thursday.

“When unsuspecting college kids and other drug users put these pills in their mouths, they are playing Russian roulette,” he continued. “They are gambling that the drug dealers did not place lethal doses of drugs like methamphetamine or fentanyl in these pills.”

Authorities on Thursday arrested 23-year-old Varun Prasad of Austin, accusing him of leading the drug operation since April 2019. Of the 13 people accused of working for Prasad, eight of them were former or current University of Texas college students.

According to public records, Prasad has previously faced at least six charges, mostly of felony drug possession, and was convicted in at least two of the cases.

Prasad was listed as a current student at UT, public records show.

Steven Whipple, special agent in charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration's Houston field division, which includes the Austin area, on Friday said four in the group also faced charges accusing them of helping to create an elaborate money laundering scheme.

One of those arrested was 68-year-old Austin real estate investor Benny Daneshjou, who Austin police say helped the group buy real estate to use for safe houses and to store drugs.

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One property in Dripping Springs was used to grow hallucinogenic mushrooms, authorities said Friday.

Daneshjou made headlines in 2004 when actress Sandra Bullock successfully sued him for $7 million, alleging that he delivered shoddy work on her Lake Austin home.

Whipple said inside some of the homes described as being similar to drug stores were products from marijuana, drug-laced chocolates to methamphetamine. However, the most sought-after items according to officials Friday were the counterfeit Adderall and Xanax pills.

“These kids are all well-educated,” Whipple said about those arrested Thursday. ``We saw mathematics majors, chemistry majors, a psychology major, business majors. They decided to turn their talents into this illicit operation. They were pretty sophisticated in how they did it.”

The group used social media apps to sell the drugs on and off University of Texas campuses in Austin and San Antonio, authorities said. Whipple said many of the drug houses were in the West Campus neighborhood in Austin.

Two other potential suspects in the case overdosed and died before the arrests Thursday, according to Whipple.

Austin police launched the years-long investigation after someone submitted a tip about the illegal activity in early 2019, according to officials on Friday.

Local officials also noticed a significant increase in overdoses among UT students during the same period.

Authorities on Friday said a former UT San Antonio lecturer was also arrested for supplying the group with drugs.

Sofer said Rose Rodriguez-Rabin was charged in December 2019 for using methamphetamine to make the fake Adderall pills and supply them to Prasad and his group. San Antonio authorities also arrested Brandon Simms, who is accused of helping Rodriguez-Rabin.

Search warrants in addition to arrest warrants Thursday led officers to large quantities of fentanyl, Adderall pills, Xanax, LSD, marijuana, and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Several firearms and about $100,000 were also seized, officials said.

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Investigators believe the illegal drugs sold by this organization exceeds $1 million.

'As you can see, there are a multitude of crimes that happened along the way in this investigation, Whipple said. 'The point we would really like people to take away from this investigation is when you send your kids to college and they think they are buying prescription Adderall to get through a finals exam, high chances are it’s not Adderall. It is methamphetamine.'

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Those arrested on Thursday were:

• Varun Prasad, 23 of of Austin
• Charles Zenker, 26 of Houston
• Benny Daneshjou, 68 of Austin
• Ashley Larue, 26 of Austin
• Drew Zarate, 21 of Austin
• Christopher Edwards, 32 of Portland, Ore.
• Jacob Schelling, 21 of Cypress
• Madison Scott, 22 of Houston
• Adrian Andreescu, 21 of Plano
• Nikit Shingari, 21 of Austin
• Nolan Fogleman, 21 of Austin
• Samuel Parry, 23 of Austin
• Brandon Carpenter, 27 of Austin

All of those arrested Thursday are charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance. Prasad, Daneshjou, Larue and Zarate are also charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Feds charge 13 in drug trafficking ring that sold to UT students in Austin

The Plano Police Department received a check for nearly $5 million Thursday after assisting in the dismantling of a large Internet-based gambling operation with ties to Texas.

U.S. Attorney John Bales and IRS Special Agent in Charge Madie Branch handed the Plano police a check for $4,753,841.40 in an asset sharing ceremony at police headquarters.

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According to a statement from the Department of Justice, the Plano police began an undercover investigation in 2006 into a bookmaker. According to the DOJ, that bookmaker was connected to a larger organization operating an offshore sports book in Willemstad Curacao, Netherlands Antilles.

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Through the investigation, 18 North Texas residents were identified as conspirators who accepted wagers on college and professional sports through 25 websites hosted in Curacao.

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'The defendants provided bettors with a personal login code and password to facilitate the placement of wagers through the websites and to disguise their identities. Bettors were then directed to specific websites or to toll free numbers operated by the websites where the bettors placed wagers on sporting events,' the DOJ said in a news release Thursday.

On March 3 and 4, 2011, 32 federal search warrants were executed at residences, offices and safe-deposit boxes of the defendants. Additionally, 47 seizure warrants were executed to seize bank and investment accounts, cars and property.

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In 2012, NBC 5's Scott Gordon reported the IRS said the gambling ring collected $1 billion a year and as many as 35,000 phone calls a month.

'The investigation disclosed that this illegal Internet wagering organization generated in excess of $5.4 billion in gross wagers resulting in approximately $200 million in illegal earnings to the defendants from January 2007 to February 2011.

All 18 of the defendants have pleaded guilty to various criminal violations ranging from money laundering to tax violations. Additionally, more than $10 million has been forfeited to the U.S. Government.