Massachusetts 'meth and fentanyl kingpin' in Boston court for massive drug operation and PPP loan fraud

The so-called kingpin of a massive meth and fentanyl racket in Massachusetts , with supposed links to China, was arrested last week, putting a dent in what's been dubbed a "sprawling" drug operation churning out millions of counterfeit pills.

Schuyler Oppenheimer, who allegedly went by the moniker "Michael Sylvain" in dealings with his Chinese suppliers, was arrested and slapped with charges at a federal Boston court for havin g 500 grams of some mystery mix containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine , along with a pair of wire fraud counts.

The 33-year-old Cambridge, Massachusetts mam could be looking at a stretch of 10 years to life behind bars if he's found guilty of the narcotics accusations.

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And that's not all the prosecutors have hinted at more charges coming his way, as reported by the Boston Herald.

Digging deeper into the case, it turned out that Oppenheimer's dodgy dealings were partly bankrolled by scamming the Paycheck Protection Program loans, which is likely where the wire fraud charges are springing from.

"The sprawling manufacturing of illegal drugs alleged in this case is as dangerous as it is appalling. It is alleged that Mr. Oppenheimer illegally manufactured hundreds of kilograms of lethal drugs in order to continue to saturate our streets with deadly drugs," Acting US Attorney Joshua Levy blabbed to the press.

FBI Special Agent Eric Paolino, who was involved in the investigation, described Oppenheimer as a "skilled" drug chemist. Court documents with his extensive criminal history reveal previous drug-related charges, some going back as far as 2008.

Oppenheimer was reportedly on pretrial release related to three ongoing cases against him. Far from being an isolated player, he is assumed to have operated as a specialist for other large drug production operations in Massachusetts, as stated in Paolino's sworn statement which the Boston Herald managed to get their hands on.

It's believed that one of the individuals he clocked hours for was Vincent "Fatz" Caruso, a prominent figure in North Shore's fentanyl trade, who admitted last year to running a large drug trafficking operation alongside his mother, specializing in pressed fentanyl pills. He received a sentence of more than two decades behind bars.

Caruso apparently became notorious after he and his right-hand man, Ernest "Yo Pesci" Johnson, started showcasing their glitzy lives on social media. Johnson supposedly earned himself a prison sentence of seven and a half years in 2022.

Court documents show that Oppenheimer willingly agreed to detention ahead of a hearing. The question remains, though: how were authorities able to apprehend someone with allegedly over a decade and a half's worth of experience in this shady trade?

Oppenheimer's downfall came from his own rubbish. Described as meticulous by investigators, he lived alone in a rented single-family home in Everett.

The basement was reportedly used as a cookhouse, according to the affidavit, and unlike his alleged former employers, he didn't flaunt his activities on social media.

Court filings only include grainy surveillance photos of him, but investigators allegedly discovered discarded pressed pills in his trash. They also reportedly found tools related to pill production.

However, the most revealing finds were notebooks and loose-leaf pages containing recipes and worksheets for calculating the proportions of raw materials needed to produce illegal pills.

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Regarding the fraudulent loans, Oppenheimer is alleged to have applied for and received $40,000 through the Paycheck Protection Program, submitting false tax statements in the process.

Perhaps the most incriminating evidence was found when investigators searched his home. They discovered five kilograms of what is believed to be methamphetamine already formed into counterfeit Adderall pills and a loaded firearm - which Oppenheimer is prohibited from possessing due to previous felony convictions.

"According to the recipes recovered during the investigation, when manufactured into counterfeit pills, 200 kilograms of filler powder equates to millions of counterfeit pills containing fentanyl and methamphetamine," the US Attorney's Boston office summarised in a statement.

The Boston Herald provided statistics showing that there were 507 confirmed or estimated opioid-related deaths in Massachusetts through March this year, representing the most recent data available. Last year reportedly saw 2,125 such deaths, with 301 occurring in Middlesex County, where Oppenheimer was active.

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