- The FBI is accusing a Pennsylvania family of conducting a drug operation on the dark web.
- Agents claim they found a home laboratory with drugs and a pill press in the family's house.
A Pennsylvania mom accused of operating a drug trade on the dark web with her family claimed that she wasn't part of a drug conspiracy but rather conducting research for a relevant screenplay, court documents showed.
In April, FBI agents accused a Pennsylvania family of operating a "darknet vendor" under the name "MonPham," selling counterfeit oxycodone and Xanax, court documents filed in an Eastern District Virginia court showed.
Agents said they could trace the operation back to the Northeast Pennsylvania residence of Tanziludin Bangurah, Hadja Franklin, and Nabyunissa Bangoura. According to the documents, authorities discovered that Bangurah and Franklin are the married parents of Bangoura.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department's office in the Eastern District of Virginia did not respond to a request for comment sent during the weekend.
"The government made numerous controlled purchases from the defendants, some of which were mailed to EDVA (Eastern District of Virginia), documents filed earlier in October stated. "In chat messages with the FBI, the defendants confirmed that they were manufacturing the pills themselves."
About August 2022, federal agents obtained a search warrant for their home. They said they found "a home laboratory, including a pill press, vacuum sealer, safety equipment, and a substantial quantity of drugs." The agents said there were also drug ledgers that appeared to show login credentials for several "MonPham" accounts.
On the day of the search warrant, Franklin provided a recorded statement to investigators, saying she had no knowledge of a drug lab or activity in her home.
However, in follow-up statements, Franklin provided another explanation for what prosecutors described in the court documents as her "ever-shifting story."
"Franklin claims that she was not engaged in a drug conspiracy but rather research for a screenplay she is writing about the online drug trade," prosecutors said in the court documents. "She says that the lab and accounts were set-up by an individual named John (at various points, she has identified the individual as 'Red' or 'John Whyte,' while other times she claims not to know his last name) who she contacted only using a burner phone that the FBI did not find during execution of the search warrant but she has since discarded."
According to the documents, Franklin also said she was a source for the FBI when she lived in New York. Investigators found no record of her time collaborating with the federal agency.
A grand jury indicted the family with one count of conspiracy to distribute 40 grams or more of a mixture containing fentanyl in July. A trial is set for November 6.
Attorneys representing Bangurah, Franklin, and Bangoura did not respond to a request for comment sent during the weekend.