'Pillpusher' Pleads Guilty To Illegally Selling Painkillers

GWINNETT COUNTY, GA — A Duluth man known as “Pillpusher” on the darknet pleaded guilty Tuesday to distributing illicit prescription drugs and shipping them through the mail.

Cullen Roberts, 23, was identified when he was caught shipping packages containing the drugs through the U.S. Post Office in Cumming, according to a statement Wednesday from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Federal agents later discovered at Roberts’ home dozens of tablets of Tramadol, a commonly abused painkiller. They also found empty boxes that had contained oxycodone and alprazolam, commonly known by its brand name Xanax.

According to court documents, from April through October 2020, Roberts sold prescription opioids and other scheduled narcotics on a darknet market. Authorities began making undercover purchases from him in July 2020.

Among the drugs Roberts sold was oxymorphone, a powerful opiate used to treat severe pain, for $90 a pill. In his advertisement, Roberts described the pills as “the gold standard for any opiate” and “the closest you will get to heaven.”

Roberts, who faces up to 20 years in prison, is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 2.

Read the statement from the U.S. Department of Justice.