Aaron Peila, Oxycodone Distribution and Money Laundering, UT 2023

Aaron Peila, 33, of Utah and Nevada, is headed to federal prison for 144 months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and conspiracy to commit money laundering. U.S. District Judge David Nuffer handed down the sentence Wednesday in Salt Lake City, marking the end of a five-year criminal operation that flooded Utah with tens of thousands of high-dose painkillers.

From 2007 through 2012, Peila orchestrated a sprawling drug network that distributed approximately 89,000 oxycodone 80 mg tablets and 22,000 30 mg tablets across Utah and surrounding regions. Federal prosecutors detailed in a sentencing memorandum how Peila regularly traveled from Utah to Las Vegas to collect bulk shipments of the pills, then funneled them through a network of associates for street-level distribution.

Alongside the drug operation, Peila laundered an estimated $3.8 million in illicit proceeds. His guilty plea confirmed his role not as a low-level dealer, but as a central distributor moving massive quantities of opioids through the Salt Lake Valley and beyond. Prosecutors emphasized that while he didn’t create the opioid epidemic, he profited heavily from its devastation.

“Peila clearly engaged in distributor activity throughout the Salt Lake Valley and elsewhere. He engaged persons inside and outside the state to receive large amounts of oxycodone pills and shipped/transferred money in exchange for those pills,” federal prosecutors wrote. “While Peila should not be held responsible for the oxycodone epidemic at large, he should be held responsible for his substantial piece of it.”

Multiple co-conspirators have already pleaded guilty, with sentences ranging from 72 months in prison to probation. Three others are still awaiting sentencing as the investigation continues to unravel the full extent of the network. The case was the result of a deep collaboration between the DEA and IRS-Criminal Investigation, agencies that tracked both the drugs and the massive financial trail left behind.

“This criminal organization was at the very forefront of the local opioid epidemic,” said DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Brian Besser. “Its profit-driven enterprise serves as a relevant and timely example of the scope of the problem that is killing Utah’s citizens at an alarming rate of 24 per month.” IRS Special Agent in Charge Tara Sullivan added that following the money remains a critical weapon in dismantling narcotics rings: “We will continue to use our unique expertise in financial investigations to choke off these operations at the source.”

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