Spice And Bath Salts Dealer Sentenced
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – Ryan Fernandes, age 30 of Gloucester, Va., was sentenced today to 204 months imprisonment and three years of supervised release. This followed his November 12, 2013 guilty plea to Conspiracy to Distribute Analogues.
Dana J. Boente, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, made the announcement after the sentence was imposed by United States District Judge Mark S. Davis in Newport News.
Fernandes was indicted by a federal grand jury on April 10, 2013, for his activities as the owner/operator of the Treasure Box on George Washington Highway in Gloucester, Virginia.
In a statement of facts filed with his plea agreement, the defendant admitted to conspiring with others to distribute and possess with intent to distribute a variety of analogue drugs, commonly referred to as “Spice” and “Bath Salts,” between January 2012 and July 2012.
This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Virginia State Police Tri-Rivers and Peninsula Task Forces the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the Gloucester County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant United States Attorney Eric M. Hurt prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.