Self-Proclaimed Dark Web 'Xanax King' Arrested For Allegedly Manufacturing Fake Drugs

CONCORD (CBS SF) -- A 41-year-old Martinez man who once allegedly dubbed himself "Xanax King" has been charged in a federal criminal complaint with possession of equipment for producing counterfeit drugs and the manufacture and sale of a fake version of the generic equivalent of the anti-anxiety medication.

Jeremy Donagal is also alleged to have violated the conditions of his supervised release from a 2015 conviction under the marketing name Xanax King or XK, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

According to the criminal complaint, Donagal leased a warehouse in Concord in December 2018 and allegedly went there on Thursday. He was detained shortly after leaving the building, which housed "multiple pill presses, plastic trays with punches and dies in them, thousands of pressed tablets, packaging and shipping materials, and other equipment consistent with a mail-order business."

Tablets found in the warehouse had the same markings as those made by Sandoz Inc., a legitimate manufacturer of alprazolam, the generic ingredient in Xanax.

Donagal was already on a three-year term of supervised release from his 2018 conviction that required him to work regularly at a lawful
occupation, federal prosecutors said.

Revocation of the terms of his release were now being sought.

Prosecutors charge that Donagal began setting up a new counterfeit pill operation almost as soon as he was let out of prison to supervised release and "established a dark web vendor site to sell the pills nationwide."

Donagal is scheduled to appear before Magistrate Judge Alex G. Tse on Monday.

If convicted of possessing equipment to produce counterfeit drugs, Donagal faces a maximum statutory penalty of four years in prison and one year of supervised release. If convicted of the counterfeit drug manufacturing and sale charge, he faces a maximum statutory penalty of three years in prison and one year of supervised release.