Ex-Cop Smutek Gets 8 Years for Selling Date Rape Drug

Robert Smutek, a 53-year-old former police officer from Sleepy Hollow, New York, was sentenced to eight years in federal prison yesterday for selling a date rape drug disguised as a ‘mood enhancer.’ Smutek peddled 200,000 bottles of Potion 9—a product laced with 1,4 butanediol, a chemical that converts to GHB in the body—through his website, Online Coral Calcium, over a five-year period.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who prosecuted the case in the Southern District of New York, slammed Smutek’s actions as a betrayal of public trust. ‘Smutek, a former police officer, was peddling a date rape drug over the Internet from his suburban home. The sentence imposed on him by the Court properly reflects the callous nature of his years-long drug dealing,’ Bharara said in a statement from White Plains federal court.

The prosecution proved that between 2009 and 2014, Smutek marketed Potion 9 as a natural high, labeling it with ingredients like yohimbe and other ‘herbal’ components. In reality, the pink liquid in one-ounce bottles contained 1,4 butanediol—an industrial solvent and controlled substance analogue of GHB, a drug notoriously used in sexual assaults. When ingested, it metabolizes into the same mind-altering, sedative compound associated with date rape.

At sentencing before the Honorable Kenneth M. Karas, federal authorities revealed Smutek profited $1.2 million from the scheme. He was ordered to forfeit every dollar—money investigators traced through bank records and digital sales logs from his now-shuttered website. Prosecutors argued that Smutek knew exactly what he was selling, citing internal messages where he instructed buyers on dosage and effects.

In addition to his eight-year prison term, Smutek will serve three years of supervised release upon completion of his sentence. Authorities emphasized the danger posed by unregulated online drug sales, particularly when masked as supplements. ‘This wasn’t wellness,’ said an FDA investigator. ‘This was a criminal enterprise disguised as health.’

The case was investigated by the Rhode Island Task Force of the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations, with support from the IRS Criminal Investigation Division and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Prosecution was led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Maurene Comey, James McMahon, and Douglas Zolkind out of the U.S. Attorney’s White Plains Division.