A Bethesda man is now facing federal charges in addition to those filed by Connecticut prosecutors in a drug overdose case in which 11 people were sickened at Wesleyan University.
Authorities believe Zachary Kramer, 21, was the primary distributor of Molly, a psychedelic drug typically containing MDMA, that sickened the college students, according to the federal indictment filed May 21 in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.
Federal prosecutors say that in December 2014 Kramer took over as the primary supplier of Molly at Wesleyan from Eric Lonergan, 22, of Rio de Janeiro, who is also facing federal charges in the case.
Prosecutors say Kramer would sell the drug in pill form for $20 each, or in bulk form for about $80 to $100 per gram. In January, Kramer brought to Wesleyan at least 25 grams of Molly, which he redistributed to other students, according to the indictment. The Molly was originally purchased in Washington D.C., according to a Connecticut news station.
Eleven people, including 10 Wesleyan students, overdosed on Molly on Feb. 21 after taking it at a party, and several were transported to the hospital. Two students were in critical condition and one had to be revived after his heart stopped. All the students survived. Investigators discovered that each student took Molly that was later traced back to Kramer, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors say that after the overdoses, Kramer attempted to contact at least one of his distributors to tell the person not to speak to police. The indictment also alleges that Kramer falsely claimed his distributor was the source of the bad Molly.
Police were able to obtain Molly that belonged to one of Kramer’s distributors to test it. The tests found that the drugs contained AB Fubinaca, a Schedule I controlled substance and synthetic cannabinoid, but not MDMA.
AB Fubinaca is most often found laced on plant materials, which are smoked by users, and is known to have psychoactive effects, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The DEA has long warned about the dangers of synthetic cannabis, often called Spice, which is designed to emulate the effects of marijuana, but can contain unknown ingredients due to a lack of regulation where the drug is manufactured, which agents say is mostly in China.
Kramer and Lonergan face charges of conspiracy to possess and distribute MDMA as well as distribution of MDMA within 1,000 feet of a private college. The charges carry prison sentences up to 20 years and fines up to $2 million. Both were released last week on $250,000 bond each.
The indictment alleges that Lonergan was the primary distributor of Molly on the campus prior to Kramer taking over. In September 2014 a few students experienced a similar overdose from Molly later linked to Lonergan.
“Some of these students complained of feeling an extreme lethargy, while others complained of feeling an extreme and irrational fear of everything and everyone around them,” the indictment reads. “Some of these students did not recover for at least three days. One student snorted approximately 0.05 grams of the substance and, within ten minutes of having ingested it, passed out and, after being revived and taken to her room, remained bedridden there for two days before finally being transported and treated at the hospital.”
One of the students who got ill in that incident turned over some of the Molly to police. Tests later found the Molly had AB Fubinaca in it as well as a substance similar to MDMA, according to the indictment.
At a press conference last week, federal prosecutors warned about the misperception that these synthetic drugs are “harmless party drugs,” according to a report in the Hartford Courant.
“One of the dangers of these synthetic drugs for the user is you just don’t know what you’re taking,” said Michael Ferguson, a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent, according to the paper. “Unfortunately, Molly can be a name of a hundred different substances, so you really are playing Russian roulette.”
Kramer had previously started selling the drug sometime during the summer of 2014, after getting it from Lonergan, prosecutors say. An attorney for Kramer, Jennifer Zito, told Bethesda Beat in March she hoped Kramer would be cleared of the charges, but that “it is too soon to predict an outcome.”
Three other students also face state charges in the case—Abhimanyu Janamanchi, 21, of Rockville, Andrew Olson, 20, of California and Rama Agha Al Nakib, 20, of Lutherville, Maryland.
All of the students have pleaded not guilty to the state charges.
The New Haven Register reported that Janamanchi was one of two students critically injured in the Feb. 22 incident and after recovering he turned himself into police. He was charged with possession and sale of a hallucinogenic controlled substance after investigators found synthetic marijuana and a drug known as bath salts in his room.
All five students have been expelled from the university.
