BOISE – Mark Ciccarello, 37, of Boise, Idaho, has been sentenced to 37 months in prison for his role in an Idaho spice conspiracy.
Ciccarello was one of four defendants charged with manufacturing controlled substance analogues and laundering the money from selling these substances nationwide. His co-conspirators, Troy Palmer, William Mabry, and Robert Eoff, had previously been sentenced in connection with the conspiracy.
The indictment alleged that Ciccarello and his co-conspirators conspired to purchase and import from China chemicals known as AM2201, UR-144, and XLR11, which they used to treat innocuous plant matter to make ‘spice,’ a synthetic cannabinoid similar to substances including JWH018 listed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.
The most popular spice product they made was called ‘Zombie Matter,’ which also became the name of the marketing enterprise set up by Ciccarello. The indictment alleged that they conspired to launder money illegally obtained through spice manufacturing and distribution.
Ciccarello admitted to being a leader in the conspiracy to conduct financial transactions in connection with a ‘spice’ manufacturing and distribution business, beginning in March 2011. He also admitted to knowingly participating in and directing the financial activity of the business by engaging in bank and other financial transactions, through both domestic and foreign financial institutions.
The transactions consisted of the proceeds of illegal spice sales and other specified unlawful activity, and in many cases, the transactions conducted through financial institutions separately consisted of criminally derived property of a value greater than $10,000. Most of the transactions occurred in Idaho, Washington, and California.
Ciccarello was ordered to pay $4.5 million in asset forfeiture and a $3,000 fine. He will self-surrender, as directed by the United States Bureau of Prisons.
The case was the result of a joint investigation of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), which included the cooperative law enforcement efforts of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, Boise Police Department, Meridian Police Department, Ada County Sheriff’s Office, Canyon County Sheriff’s Office, and Nampa Police Department.
ðŸâ€â€™ Get the grimiest stories delivered weekly. Subscribe free →
MORE FEDERAL CRIME NEWS
Drug TraffickingDrug TraffickingDrug TraffickingDrug Trafficking