New York inmate pleads guilty to selling synthetic pot while behind bars in prison ring smuggling case

A New York prison inmate pleaded guilty in Pittsburgh federal court to scheming to sell synthetic marijuana while behind bars, prosecutors said .

Quoc Boa Trinh, a former inmate at a federal prison in Otisville, N.Y., admitted to conspiring to distribute synthetic cannabinoid substances from 2017 through early 2019, U.S. Attorney Scott W. Brady said.

Synthetic cannabinoids describe products sprayed with chemicals aimed at mimicking THC, the psychoactive component in marijuana. With names like K2 and Spice, such products often are marketed as potpourri or incense and labeled “not for human consumption.”

The so-called “fake weed” produces a short-lived high but can have dangerous long-term effects, including suicidal thoughts, seizures, psychosis, cardiac arrest and death.

It was among several types of drugs identified last year when more than two dozen people were arrested in what Brady described as a take-down of “one of the largest prison drug smuggling rings in the country.”

RELATED: 27 indicted on federal drug and money laundering crimes

In January 2019, a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh indicted 27 people linked to the ring, most of whom were serving prison sentences or recently released from federal prison, on a litany of drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering charges.

Fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, oxycodone and buprenophrine, or Suboxone, were among other drugs that participants in the ring smuggled in and out of federal prison, prosecutors said. Prisoners paid for the drugs through an elaborate money-laundering scheme involving their financial accounts at the prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig W. Haller prosecuted the case, with help from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service, Postal Inspection Service, Bureau of Prisons and Homeland Security.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office and Beaver County District Attorney’s Office assisted in the investigation, as did police from Pittsburgh, Munhall, Robinson, McKees Rocks, Stowe, Etna and Erie.

Per federal guidelines, Trinh could face a maximum possible sentence of up to 30 years in prison and a fine up to $2 million, Brady said.

U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan scheduled a sentencing hearing for July 7.