California Man Sentenced to More Than Two Years in Prison for Selling Illegal Depressant Over the Internet

BOSTON – A California man has been sentenced on May 30, 2025 in federal court in Boston for conspiracy to sell the illegal depressant, Etizolam, over the internet. One customer died as a result of ingesting Etizolam purchased from defendant’s website.

Paul Z. Lamberty, 52, of Folsom, Calif., was sentenced on May 30, 2025 by U.S. District Court Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to 30 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. In August 2024, Lamberty pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of the introduction of misbranded drugs with the intent to defraud and mislead.

Lamberty operated websites Encern.com and Ohmod.com and used those sites to sell the drug etizolam to customers throughout the United States, including Massachusetts. Payments for etizolam through those websites could only be made through cryptocurrency and it was shipped to customers through U.S. Priority Mail.  Encern.com has no corporate records in the State of California and the website did not provide a physical address for the business. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had not approved etizolam for use as a drug, and thus it could not be sold or prescribed in the United States. Despite this, Lamberty purchased drugs from suppliers in China, imported them into the United States and then sold the drugs with false labelling stating that the products were sold “For Research Purposes Only” and “Not for Human Consumption.” Based on an analysis of bank and cryptocurrency records, Lamberty and his co-conspirator conducted gross sales of over $550,000 of etizolam through the internet during the course of the conspiracy. According to court documents, in 2020, a Massachusetts customer of Lamberty’s website purchased and ingested etizolam and died as a result.

According to the charging document, etizolam is a drug known as a thienodiazepine, a class of drugs chemically related to benzodiazepines, which produce central nervous system depression. Physicians may prescribe FDA-approved benzodiazepines to treat insomnia and anxiety, but benzodiazepines and thienodiazepines also carry risks of dependency, toxicity and even fatal overdose, particularly when combined with other central nervous system depressants.  According to court documents, in July 2023, the DEA temporarily scheduled etizolam as a Schedule I controlled substance.

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Fernando P. McMillan, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations; and Ketty Larco-Ward, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Boston Division made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jared C. Dolan and Lauren A. Graber of the Criminal Division prosecuted the case.