A Minnesota man who investigators say sold fatal doses of fentanyl online to unsuspecting customers is linked to at least 10 homicides nationwide, including a Scranton woman who fatally overdosed last spring, federal prosecutors said.

Aaron R. Broussard, 26, of Hopkins, Minnesota, appeared Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Karoline Mehalchick in Scranton to face a charge of delivering a controlled substance that resulted in death. He pleaded not guilty.

A federal grand jury indicted Mr. Broussard on Dec. 6, after his arrest that day in Hopkins, U.S. Attorney Bruce D. Brandler's office said. The arrest was for the May 8 death in Scranton of a 26-year-old woman, who was not identified in court documents. A search of court records did not show any additional charges filed against Mr. Broussard in any other state.

The indictment followed a six-month investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Homeland Security and numerous state and local law enforcement agencies, according to a detention motion attached to his docket and signed by Andrew Luger, the U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota, and Thomas Hollenhorst, an assistant U.S. attorney there.

Police across the country investigated dozens of fentanyl-related overdoses stemming from PlantFoodUSA.Net, a website prosecutors said Mr. Broussard used to distribute drugs. The victims believed they ordered "less dangerous drugs" but received fentanyl instead, a remarkably powerful opioid that has seen a surge in use as the drug epidemic has grown.

The website listed in the court documents advertises itself as the "Best Plant Food Supplier In The USA," whose products, which appear to be stimulants, are warned in red letters to be "not for human consumption."

On May 8, Scranton police officers went to a city apartment and found the 26-year-old woman unresponsive, the court documents show. She later died of a fentanyl overdose. She used the drugs, which she believed were less dangerous than they actually were, at the urging of her boyfriend, who ordered them from PlantFoodUSA.Net, investigators said. Police found fentanyl residue in the apartment, which provided the basis for an indictment.

Federal prosecutors contend that Mr. Broussard received drugs from international sources, repackaged them and then shipped them in hundreds of priority mail parcels from the Hopkins post office to fill orders placed through the website.

Police searched his apartment Dec. 6 and found a "cornucopia" of drugs, records and financial documents. They took him into custody and sent him to Pennsylvania. He is in Lackawanna County Prison awaiting further court action.

The charge he faces carries a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $1 million fine.

"Either intentionally or in a profoundly reckless manner, he sent several lethal doses of fentanyl to numerous customers," the Minnesota prosecutors wrote. "Many of these customers died, or were otherwise overcome, within minutes after ingesting the drugs he sent them. One can hardly imagine a more serious crime."

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