Two Indian nationals in the country have been illegally sentenced to prison for trafficking fentanyl

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – Two men from India who are in the country illegally have been sentenced in federal court in Mobile to nearly four years in prison for trafficking fentanyl, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama announced.

U.S. District Court Judge Kristi K. DuBose on Friday sentenced Sundar Chebiam, 33, and Roshan Landge, 29, to 46 months in federal prison for conspiracy to possess fentanyl with intent to distribute, federal prosecutors said.

According to court documents, on February 1, 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials intercepted a suspicious package at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, which was shipped from India via England and addressed to a gas station on Schillinger Road in Mobile. The package was found to contain 10,000 Tapentadol pills, classified by the Drug Enforcement Agency as a Schedule II pharmaceutical drug.

Homeland Security investigators and Mobile County sheriff’s deputies made a controlled delivery of the package to the gas station. Chebiam accepted the package and said it was for him, court documents show. He was arrested and confessed that someone in India was sending prescription drugs to the gas station and that he was paid to package the pills into smaller batches and send them to various U.S. addresses.

Chebiam told authorities he had more pills at the mobile residence he shared with Landge. When authorities arrived, they realized Landge had been tipped off and took the pills from the home and loaded them into the trunk of his car, court records showed. Authorities recovered numerous drugs from the trunk of the car, including approximately 416.98 grams – just under 15 ounces – of fentanyl pills.

Federal prosecutors said Landge admitted to participating in the drug trafficking scheme.

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