New Orleans Man Pleads Guilty to Ethylone Drug Charge

U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite announced that DAI VAN TRAN, age 33, a resident of New Orleans, pled guilty today to a one-count Bill of Information charging him with attempted possession with intent to distribute ethylone.

According to court records, on March 19, 2014, the United States Postal Inspection Service in New Orleans identified an International Express Mail parcel from China, addressed to a local restaurant, that contained approximately two kilograms of ethylone powder.  Ethylone, a drug similar to MDMA (“ecstacy” or “molly”), is a positional isomer of butylone, which has been prohibited as a Schedule I drug controlled substance by final emergency scheduling order of the Deputy Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration published March 7, 2014.  The ethylone was removed from the intercepted parcel and replaced with approximately two kilograms of a decoy non-drug powder, in anticipation of making an undercover delivery of the parcel on the following day.  TRAN eventually appeared at the restaurant and received the parcel.

TRAN faces a sentence of up to twenty years incarceration.  U.S. District Judge Martin L.C. Feldman scheduled sentencing for February 17, 2016.

U.S. Attorney Polite praised the work of the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Tactical Diversion Squad of the New Orleans Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration in investigating this matter.  Assistant United States Attorney Michael B. Redmann is in charge of the prosecution.