A Bensalem man entered a guilty plea on three counts of trafficking counterfeit goods, the United States Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced late last month, but that’s just scratches the surface on what Robert Davis was actually doing.
United States Attorney for the Eastern District Jacqueline C. Romero announced Davis, 36, entered a plea of guilty today before United States District John Frank Murphy on August 28.
Davis was charged in a superseding indictment on May 9, 2023, with selling the counterfeit opioid pills through his website, now shutdown, advertising the fake pills for use as props in films or music videos, over four years beginning in 2015, court paperwork shows.
Romero said the counterfeits contained no controlled substances but mimicked the trademarks of certain opioid pills.
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Prosecutors said, Davis made fake pills with the unique drug markings and trademarks of various frequently-abused opioid pills, such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and the anti-anxiety drug Xanax. His customers purchased the “fakes” repeatedly and likely “flipped” them for actual addictive controlled substances and street drugs (Heroin for example), rather than in films or videos as advertised, Romeo said.
Davis is scheduled to be sentenced on December 20, and on each count, faces a maximum possible sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release, Romero said.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Food and Drug Administration, and the FBI, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Christopher Diviny.