Arizonan Mark Karas Imprisoned For Distributing Oxycodone

The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that Mark Karas, 52, of Tucson, AZ, was sentenced today to 30 months of imprisonment following his guilty plea to a charge that he conspired to distribute oxycodone.  U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III also ordered that Karas serve three years of supervised release following completion of his prison term.  Karas has been incarcerated since his arrest last April.

According to court records, on March 1, 2012, a federal grand jury in Burlington returned an indictment charging Karas and Mark Turner, 28, of Fairfax, with conspiring to distribute oxycodone.  In the winter of 2012, Milton Police Officers made several controlled purchases of oxycodone from Turner.  Local law enforcement officials and postal inspectors then executed search warrants at Turner's residence and on a piece of U.S. mail and seized drugs, a gun and money.  Further investigation developed that Karas was mailing the oxycodone pills to Turner from Arizona and Turner was paying for the drugs by return mail.

Turner pled guilty to the charge in 2013 and was sentenced last fall to time served.  Karas was not arrested until last spring, following a traffic stop in Missouri.

This case was investigated by the Milton Police Department and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Karas is represented to Assistant Federal Public Defender Steven Barth.  Turner was represented by Chris Davis.  The prosecutor is Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Waples.