Two sentenced for their synthetic drug business

Editor's note: An earlier story had a wrong name and gender for Tracy Picanso.

A man and woman from Olathe were sentenced Thursday for operating a synthetic drug business that generated more than $16 million in sales in less than two years.

The two — Tracy Picanso, 61, and Roy Ehrett, 59 — were both sentenced to 54 months in federal prison. They each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, one count of producing and selling misbranded drugs and one count of conspiracy to launder money, according to a press released issued Thursday by U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.

An indictment from 2014 alleged Picanso and Ehrett owned an Olathe-based business that produced and sold dangerous controlled substances and controlled substance analogues of THC (the active ingredient in marijuana) and methcathinones (stimulants).

Their products had names such as Pump It, Head Trip, Black Arts, Grave Digger, Voodoo Doll and Lights Out. Some of the drugs, according to Beall, were manufactured in buckets with drill-powered immersion mixers and tried out on “testers” who helped tweak the recipes by reporting on the drugs’ effects.

The operation stretched from Kansas to Missouri, California, Texas, Georgia and Colorado and involved more than 15 companies with more than 40 financial accounts at more than 10 financial institutions.

Some of the businesses and operated by Picanso and Ehrett included Retailing Specialists, Innovative Products 4U, The Outer Edge, Lakeridge Holdings, Monster Warehouse, Monster Distribution, Monster, 3P Distribution and Life Source.

“Without FDA oversight, unapproved and counterfeit drugs that are produced and marketed outside the Federal system present the prospect of serious harm to the public’s health,” said Special Agent in Charge Spencer E. Morrison from the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations in the Kansas City Field Office.

Some of the agencies and individuals involved in solving the case and praised by Beal include the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Food and Drug Administration – Office of Criminal Investigations, the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, the FBI, the Overland Park Police Department, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, the Olathe Police Department, the St. Joseph Police Department and the Buchanan County Drug Strike Force, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Treadway and Michael Varrone, associate chief counsel at the Food and Drug administration.

This story was originally published June 15, 2017 at 6:31 PM with the headline "Two sentenced for their synthetic drug business."