Hayes sentencing scheduled for Monday
New Ipswich couple operated mail-order drug ring
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CONCORD – The New Ipswich couple who pleaded guilty to operating a mail-order drug ring, importing hundreds of thousands of pills from India, are scheduled to be sentenced Monday.
John Hayes, 53, and his wife, Plabplueng “Penny” Hayes, 50, are scheduled to appear in the United States District Court in Concord for sentencing hearings. The couple previously pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to misbranded drugs.
John Hayes’s brother, James Hayes, and sister-in-law, Shannon Hayes, have so far pleaded guilty to misdemeanors for their roles in the scheme. There is also an unindicted co-conspirator in India who is known by the name Patrick Smith in court records.
John Hayes was getting several deliveries a week of controlled drugs like Ambien, Oxycodone, and other substances, containing thousands of pills per shipment, delivered to Post Office boxes around Southern New Hampshire and Massachusetts, according to court records.
The pills were coming in from India, and Hayes would get the pills, then sell them to various customers, according to court records. The customer names and addresses were supplied by the partner in India. James and Shannon Hayes were getting pills delivered to them in North Carolina, according to court
documents.
Investigators raided John and Plabplueng Hayes’s home in 2013, and found more than 100,000 pills, along with other evidence of the scheme, according to court records.
Part of the recovered evidence includes email exchanges between someone using the email account associated with John and Plabplueng Hayes, and Smith.
“ets (sic) stay out of jail 8-10 packages at each post office sometimes every day are too many. 25-30 packages a day and 7,000 a month is plenty I never asked for more. Lets (sic) keep the deal we agreed on,” One of the Hayes’s wrote to Smith, according to the court
record.
Another email from the Hayes email account to the Smith email account included the following, “Penny is being overworked and getting ill. I have seen her work 21 hours in 1 day to send so many packages… . My biggest point is we don’t have enough time to do all the orders that you are sending. I can open more p.o. boxes to help the amount of packages … but that won’t help her stress
and health.”
Plabplueng Hayes pleaded guilty to her role in the scheme in August, while James and Shannon Hayes pleaded guilty in the federal court in North Carolina. John Hayes pleaded guilty in September.
Damien Fisher can be reached at 594-1245 or dfisher@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_DF.