Pharmacist, friend plotted to firebomb rival to boost dark web drug mill, feds say
Molotov cocktails.
An illegal prescription drug marketplace operating in the dark corners of the internet.
An illicit — and completely fictitious — affair.
And an unsuspecting pharmacy in Nebraska.
That’s what landed two men behind bars for a combined 23 years, according to federal prosecutors.
William Anderson Burgamy IV, 33, and Hyrum T. Wilson, 41, were sentenced Friday after they pleaded guilty to their respective roles in an elaborate plot to firebomb a competing pharmacy to grow their illegal drug trade on the dark web, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a news release.
Wilson, a former pharmacist from Nebraska, was sentenced to 9.3 years in prison. Burgamy, described as a darknet vendor from Maryland, was sentenced to 14 years.
The pair met in 2018 while playing the video game “War Dragons” and grew their alleged online drug business from there, according to court filings. Prosecutors said Wilson shipped roughly 19,000 doses of medicine — including opiates — from his Nebraska pharmacy to Burgamy’s house in Maryland over the course of eight months.
Burgamy subsequently sold the prescription drugs to customers across the U.S. on the darknet and “laundered the proceeds” through Bitcoin, wire transfers and “bundles of cash sent through the mail,” prosecutors said.
“The goal of the attack plot was to destroy Wilson’s local competition, which Burgamy and Wilson believed would increase the volume of prescription drugs that Wilson’s pharmacy could obtain, thereby allowing Burgamy and Wilson’s drug trafficking operation to continue and expand,” Friday’s news release states.
A dark web drug trade
According to court filings, Wilson had been a licensed pharmacist in Nebraska since 2015 and owned Hyrum’s Family Value Pharmacy in Auburn, Nebraska, when he met Burgamy online.
The friendship grew, and Burgamy appeared in an infomercial with Wilson on YouTube where prosecutors said they “fraudulently touted” a skincare cream that supposedly treated scars.
Shortly thereafter, the pair’s illegal drug operation on the darknet came to fruition, prosecutors say.
The darknet — frequently referred to as the “dark web” — is a “network of secret websites that exist on an encrypted network,” according to Investopedia. It’s reportedly home to a slew of nefarious activities, including black markets, drug dealers, hackers and peddlers of child pornography.
From August 2019 to April 2020, prosecutors said Wilson sent Burgamy more than 1,500 pounds worth of prescription medication. The medication included painkillers such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and tramadol; stimulants like amphetamine; the seizure medication lorazepam; and the anxiety medications alprazolam and diazepam, according to court filings.
Burgamy then sold the medication on various dark web marketplaces and gave Wilson a cut of the profits, prosecutors said.
Plot to bring down rival
Wilson was limited in the supply of medication he could get from his distributor, according to court filings, and the pair believed they could get more if a competing pharmacy was out of the picture.
They called it “Operation Firewood,” prosecutors said.
The pair planned for Burgamy to break into the rival business, steal its opiate supply and then firebomb it using a Molotov cocktail with Styrofoam as a thickening agent, the news release states. Prosecutors said the attack was meant to look like it had been orchestrated by a “pissed off husband” who believed his wife had an affair with the pharmacist — which didn’t exist.
Wilson also reportedly made Burgamy a “getaway map” to avoid detection after the firebombing.
Investigators found a journal in Burgamy’s residence containing a list of items he’d need for the alleged attack, including a rental car, stolen plates, duffel bags, face masks, rubber gloves, several weapons and a gas container, according to court filings.
Burgamy promised to take care of Wilson’s “family and bills” if anything should happen to the pharmacist, and Wilson promised to “safeguard Burgamy’s life insurance information in the event Burgamy was killed during the attack,” the news release states.
Prosecutors said the pair intended to carry out the alleged firebombing “after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.” But the plan was “thwarted” after Burgamy was arrested.
Sentencing
The federal government filed criminal complaints against Burgamy and Wilson in April, court filings show. They were subsequently arrested and pleaded guilty in July to various conspiracy and money laundering charges.
Both men pushed for a lesser sentence in court filings, pointing to Burgamy’s issues with drug addiction and Wilson’s “social-emotional impairments.”
Prosecutors, however, said the intricacy of the alleged plot and the “serious nature” of their alleged crimes “cannot be overstated.” They sought a 15-year sentence for Burgamy and 11 years for Wilson.
The judge fell short of their request on Friday.
The pair will also be subject to three years of supervised release and forfeiture orders, according to court filings.
This story was originally published November 23, 2020 at 7:26 PM with the headline "Pharmacist, friend plotted to firebomb rival to boost dark web drug mill, feds say."
