Akhil Bansal, the Temple MBA student who in his off time managed a multimillion-dollar drug importing business with his father. The 26-year-old Bansal, seen here in a self-portrait in his Roxborough apartment, ran a U.S. operation that shipped about 75,000 pills a day for Internet pharmacies.
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DrugNet, Chapter 1: Global Hunt Turns Pushers Into Prey
A Temple grad student's double life puts agents here on the high-tech, high-stakes trail of rogue online pill dealers.
Akhil hunted through his wallet and found a credit card that worked. He bought two tickets home - one departing Toronto on Air Canada and one departing Newark on Virgin Atlantic. Booking two flights gave him a backup, and a decoy.
Contact staff writer John Shiffman at 215-854-2658 or jshiffman@phillynews.com.
Then Akhil called a classmate. He needed a big favor; there was trouble. Could the friend come over?
Akhil explained that he needed to leave for Toronto right away but didn't want to use his own car. Akhil's friend could sleep in the passenger seat while Akhil drove all night. To cross the border, Akhil reserved a rental car in Detroit, a Ford Escape.
At 1:40 a.m., Akhil emerged from his apartment into the crisp night air. He rolled his canvas suitcase to his friend's SUV and put his laptop in the backseat. He pocketed a handful of the pick-me-up Provigil, his drug of choice.
Then Akhil got behind the wheel and headed west.
BREEDEN'S HOME, DOWNINGTOWN
The DEA supervisor's cell phone woke him from a deep sleep at 1:42 a.m. He groped for the phone, but the call slipped to voicemail.
As Breeden fumbled to retrieve the message, the phone rang again. It was a DEA agent on the other side of the world.
The guy in India got right to it: There was a new wiretap from Brij's phone. It looked like Akhil planned to flee his Philadelphia apartment and probably leave the country. In fact, he might already be gone.
"Jeff," the agent said, "we need to get out there."
Contact staff writer John Shiffman at 215-854-2658 or jshiffman@phillynews.com.
THE REST OF THE STORY
Click here to read the other chapters in the serial.
