North Alabama Man Pleads Guilty to Online Drug-Trafficking Conspiracy

BIRMINGHAM – A Madison man known on the internet’s dark markets as OlympusXans, or OX, pled guilty today in federal court to conspiracy to traffic drugs, including fentanyl, and to possessing firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking, announced U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town and U.S. Postal Inspection Service Inspector in Charge Adrian Gonzalez.

JOSEPH WILLIAM DAVIS, 25, entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala. A federal grand jury indicted Davis on the drug-trafficking and firearms charges in May. According to the indictment, Davis conspired in 2016 and 2017 to traffic methamphetamine, Alprazolam and fentanyl in Madison and Cullman counties. He is scheduled for sentencing Dec. 19.

“Fentanyl overdose deaths continue to soar in the United States while drug traffickers hide behind their computers, ordering up potent synthetic opioids and other drugs from the darkest corners of the internet,” Town said. “The Postal Inspection Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office know how to unmask these criminals and send them to federal prison without the refuge of parole.”

“Dangerous life-threatening drugs have no place in the U.S. Mail,” Gonzalez said. “This case should serve as a deterrent by reminding criminals that postal inspectors and their law enforcement partners continuously strive to keep the U.S. Mail safe.”

Davis acknowledged in his guilty plea that he used encrypted internet chats to arrange smuggled shipments of illegal drugs, which he arranged to be delivered to addresses in Madison County via U.S. Mail.

One package seized during the investigation in 2017 contained 10,580 pills containing Alprazolam, an anti-anxiety medication. Another package contained 602 Alprazolam pills and 611 pills containing fentanyl, a deadly synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin.

For purposes of sentencing, Davis was deemed responsible for distributing, possessing with intent to distribute and conspiring to distribute or to possess with intent to distribute more than 50 grams of methamphetamine, more than 40 grams of fentanyl, 2.81 grams of cocaine, and more than 80,000 units of Alprazolam, according to his plea.

 The penalty for the conspiracy charge is 10 years to life in prison and a maximum $10 million fine. The penalty for possessing firearms in furtherance of drug-trafficking crimes is five years to life in prison, served consecutively to any other prison term imposed, and a maximum $250,000 fine.

U.S. Postal Inspectors, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Huntsville-Madison County STAC, and the Cullman County Sheriff's Department investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan S. Keim is prosecuting.

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