DENVER – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announces that Grace Kohler, age 23, and Elizabeth Brown, age 24, both of Boulder, pleaded guilty today to a felony charge of Conspiracy to Import a Controlled Substance to the United States from Mexico.
According to the plea agreement, on August 12, 2021, Grace Kohler, Elizabeth Brown, and another woman traveled to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, for a vacation. While there, the women went to a pharmacy called Pharmacy Libra, located at Calle 10 Nte 1, Centro, 77710 Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Kohler and Brown exchanged text messages and calls with a mutual friend in Boulder, Colorado, whose initials are J.B., to see what specific drugs he wanted them to get for him from the pharmacy. After considering the drugs the pharmacy advertised, J.B. asked the women to get him oxycodone. Kohler paid the pharmacy $300 for 30 pills of supposed oxycodone, using her credit card. J.B. later sent Kohler $300 as reimbursement via Venmo. Brown translated from English to Spanish while the women communicated with the employee at the pharmacy. The women believed the pills they purchased contained oxycodone because that is what the pharmacy and the employee represented the pills to be.
Before returning to the United States from Mexico, Kohler and Brown put the controlled substances they purchased—including the supposed oxycodone for J.B.—in other containers, such as a multivitamin container and a container for cold and flu medicine. On August 17, 2021, the women flew back into the United States on United Airlines and landed in Denver, Colorado. The women did not declare the controlled substances they purchased in Mexico and imported into the United States with U.S. Customs. The women drove from Denver International Airport to J.B.’s place of employment in Boulder, Colorado. In a parking lot, Brown handed J.B. the 30 tablets the women had obtained for him at Pharmacy Libra in Mexico. J.B. put the pills in his shirt pocket and the women left.
On August 18, 2021, Boulder Police responded to J.B.’s residence because his roommate had found J.B. deceased in his bedroom. Within J.B.’s bedroom, police found a sandwich bag containing 29 pills. The pills had “M” and “30” stamped on them and looked like poorly pressed counterfeit oxycodone pills. Later laboratory analysis revealed the pills in the bag contained fentanyl and not oxycodone. On August 20, the Boulder County Coroner’s Office conducted an autopsy and determined J.B. died of fentanyl intoxication.
“This tragic death is only one example of the lethal epidemic of fentanyl overdoses,” said U.S. Attorney Cole Finegan. “We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to raise public awareness and deter distribution of this deadly poison.”
“The only safe and reliable place to get legitimate prescription medications is from a trusted and licensed pharmacist within the United States,” said DEA Acting Special Agent in Charge David Olesky of the Rocky Mountain Field Division. “The cartels are driving addiction across our country through the trafficking of fentanyl. This is precisely why DEA launched its One Pill Can Kill Campaign in 2021. Today, 70 percent of the pills seized by DEA contain a potentially deadly dose of fentanyl. We can’t say it enough – don’t purchase pills on social media or take a pill provided by a ‘friend’.”
“The influx of illegal drugs, and drugs containing fentanyl, in the United States has increased over the years and, unfortunately, we have seen incidents of overdoses and tragically we have also had deaths occur,” said Commander Nick Goldberger of the Boulder County Drug Task Force. “You should only obtain prescribed medication from a legitimate pharmacy, and under a doctor’s care, to reduce your risk of taking something that may contain fentanyl.”
“Fentanyl has taken and destroyed many lives in this country and sadly our community is not immune. I’m proud of the strong policework our officers did in this case to find the suppliers of these drugs,” Boulder Police Deputy Chief of Operations Steve Redfearn said. “We truly value the great relationships we have with our federal, state, and local partners in combatting this deadly epidemic.”
Brown is scheduled to be sentenced on March 1, 2024. Kohler is scheduled to be sentence on March 7, 2024. A United States District Judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, and the Boulder County Drug Task Force are investigating the case. Assistant United States Attorneys Peter McNeilly and Alexander Duncan are prosecuting the case.
Case Number: 23-cr-00439-NYW