Huh. Spam really does kill...Follow

They were right, who knew?


http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/14162311.htm

Former Internet pharmacy owner and evil ******* spammer faces new felony charges

STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS - The owner of an Internet pharmacy shut down by the federal government faces serious new charges of conspiring to kill a witness who was expected to testify against him, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Christopher William Smith was charged with one count of conspiracy to tamper with a witness and one count of endeavoring to obstruct justice, according to a grand jury indictment unsealed Wednesday as Smith made his first court appearance on the new charges, the U.S. attorney's office said in a news release.
According to the indictment, Smith called an acquaintance from jail March 4 and allegedly stated he intended to threaten and intimidate a witness he expected would testify against him in his upcoming trial on drug and other charges. The indictment alleges Smith also said he intended to have the witness or the witness' family killed.
It was one of several calls made by Smith to numbers not linked with his defense attorney that officials at the Sherburne County Jail monitored and recorded, the prosecutors' statement said.
Smith's lawyer, Joe Friedberg, declined comment on the new charges.
Smith, of Prior Lake, a notorious computer spammer known as Rizler, and other co-defendants were already scheduled to go on trial Oct. 2 on a host of charges connected with his Burnsville-based Internet pharmacy business Xpress Pharmacy Direct, which federal authorities shut down last May. He was 25 at the time.
Prosecutors allege his operations generated more than $20 million in illegal sales of the narcotic pain reliever hydrocodone without valid prescriptions.
He was arrested after returning to the United States from the Dominican Republic, where prosecutors say he was trying to set up a new operation in violation of a judge's order. He went free on bail briefly, until he was jailed for violating the conditions of his release. He has pleaded not guilty to the original charges.
The maximum potential penalties on the new charges are life in prison for conspiracy to tamper with a witness, and 20 years for endeavoring to obstruct justice. The actual sentence, if he's convicted on those counts, would be up to the judge and would probably be less.

When is the court date?