Jack Vitayanon, Conspiracy to Distribute Methamphetamine, DC 2024

Washington, D.C. attorney Jack Vitayanon, 41, has been charged with conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine, marking a stunning fall from grace for a federal lawyer tasked with upholding professional ethics at the Internal Revenue Service. Vitayanon, assigned to the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility, was arrested in his D.C. apartment following a years-long investigation into a cross-country drug ring stretching from Arizona to Long Island.

A criminal complaint unsealed in the Eastern District of New York details how Vitayanon allegedly negotiated and shipped distribution quantities of methamphetamine to undercover Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents using Federal Express. Communications were conducted via recorded video chats and encrypted text messages, with law enforcement intercepting a shipment in December 2016. The defendant is accused of directly coordinating the delivery from his residence in Washington, D.C.

During a recorded internet video call on December 15, 2016, Vitayanon was observed smoking what appeared to be methamphetamine from a glass pipe while inside his home, according to the complaint. The conversation was with an undercover operative posing as a buyer. The exchange provided critical evidence linking the attorney directly to both the use and sale of the illicit drug.

A court-authorized raid on Vitayanon’s D.C. apartment yielded additional suspected methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia, packaging materials, and handwritten ledgers believed to document drug transactions. The seizure underscores the depth of the alleged operation, which prosecutors say spanned multiple states and operated under the radar for years.

“As alleged, the defendant – a federal attorney working for the IRS’s Office of Professional Responsibility – broke bad and supplemented his income by selling distribution quantities of methamphetamine,” said United States Attorney Robert L. Capers. “The defendant will now be held to account for his alleged criminal conduct.” Capers credited investigative efforts by the Treasury Department Inspector General and HSI’s Washington D.C. High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area unit.

HSI Special Agent-in-Charge Angel M. Melendez condemned the betrayal of public trust: “Selling methamphetamine is a serious crime which is made more egregious when it is committed by a U.S. government attorney assigned to the Office of Professional Responsibility of the IRS.” The case, prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles N. Rose in the Long Island Criminal Section, remains pending. Jack Vitayanon, E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 17-MJ-80, is presumed innocent until proven guilty.