Photo Courtesy of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York
Some of the pills Kamaldoss imported.
By Forum Staff
A federal jury in Brooklyn returned a guilty verdict on Monday against Ezhil Sezhian Kamaldoss on all counts of a superseding indictment charging him with conspiring to distribute millions of opioid pills and other illegal controlled substances imported from India and money laundering conspiracy, prosecutors announced.
According to federal officials, the evidence at trial proved that between May 2018 and August 2019, Richmond Hill resident Kamaldoss, 43, participated with others in a transnational drug-trafficking conspiracy, which involved the importation of misbranded prescription drugs, including Tramadol, a synthetic opioid, into the United States from India, re-packaging the drugs at a pill mill operating out of a warehouse in Jamaica, and shipping the drugs via U.S. mail to customers throughout the country. During the course of the charged conspiracy, Kamaldoss and the men who worked for him distributed millions of Tramadol pills sometimes purchasing hundreds of thousands of pills at a time. Additionally, Kamaldoss conspired to launder the proceeds of the drug-trafficking operation by using the illicit profits to reinvest in the business, including by paying shipping costs incurred by his co-conspirators—including nearly $200,000 in Federal Express costs paid off in exchange for additional pills.
File Photo
“The defendant is now a convicted drug dealer,” U.S. Attorney Peace said.
The government’s evidence included testimony from a cooperating witness, who admitted to bribing workers at John F. Kennedy International Airport to evade detection by law enforcement authorities; members of law enforcement, one of whom testified that he witnessed Kamaldoss shipping packages and seized some of the drugs mailed by the defendant; testimony from an expert in forensic chemistry that the drugs mailed by Kamaldoss contained Tramadol and Alprazolam; documentary exhibits, including hundreds of emails, text messages, and spreadsheets recovered from email accounts and electronic devices of the defendant and his co-conspirators reflecting their daily receipt of dozens of drug orders, and their responses including tracking numbers of the shipments fulfilling the orders; and an audio recording made by a confidential informant of co-defendant Velaudapillai Navaratnarajah discussing the number and type of pills to package into envelopes. Navaratnarajah pleaded guilty in June 2022 to the drug conspiracy charges and is awaiting sentencing.
“The defendant is now a convicted drug dealer. He lined his pockets off the black-market sales of millions of illegal opioids and misbranded prescription pills without regard for the harm caused by the abuse of these highly addictive and dangerous drugs,” said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace. “With today’s verdict, the defendant is held accountable for having a hand in every aspect of his pill mill, from the importing of unapproved medications from India, to personally filling orders for these drugs for customers throughout the country.”
When sentenced, Kamaldoss faces up to 50 years in prison.
