{"id":6439,"date":"2020-03-13T16:08:30","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T16:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/ng\/?p=6439"},"modified":"2020-03-13T16:08:30","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T16:08:30","slug":"nigerian-drug-queen-in-america-temitope-ayoni-olaiya-alias-tammy-sentenced-to-10-years-in-prison-for-cocaine-conspiracy-multiple-fraud-scheme-41-year-old-green-card-holder-in-maryland-recruit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/nigerian-drug-queen-in-america-temitope-ayoni-olaiya-alias-tammy-sentenced-to-10-years-in-prison-for-cocaine-conspiracy-multiple-fraud-scheme-41-year-old-green-card-holder-in-maryland-recruit\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian Drug Queen in America, TEMITOPE AYONI OLAIYA, alias ‘Tammy’ sentenced to 10 years in prison for Cocaine conspiracy, multiple fraud scheme * 41-year old Green Card holder in Maryland recruit men, assist couriers in obtaining passports, visas, booked their travel arrangement *Suspect ensure couriers’ travel to foreign countries to obtain drugs, bring same into USA *BY GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU\/AMERICAN FOREIGN BUREAU CHIEF"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Nigerian\nDrug Queen in America, TEMITOPE AYONI OLAIYA, alias ‘Tammy’ sentenced\nto 10 years in prison for Cocaine conspiracy, multiple fraud scheme<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*\n41-year old Green Card holder in Maryland recruit men, assist\ncouriers in obtaining passports, visas, booked their travel\narrangement <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Suspect\nensure couriers’ travel to foreign countries to obtain drugs, bring\nsame into USA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*BY\nGEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU\/AMERICAN FOREIGN BUREAU CHIEF<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE END HAS COME FINALLY FOR A NIGERIAN DRUG\nQUEEN, TEMITOPE AYONI OLAIYA, a Green Card holder in Maryland, United\n States as she has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for Cocaine\nactivities and multiple fraud scheme which she has been engaged in\nthe last decade. She recruits men into drug trafficking, opening\nbank accounts in the name of the couriers. <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This permanent resident status holder has been\njailed for <\/strong>10 years in prison\nand ordered to pay over $377,000 in restitution for leading a\nconspiracy to import more than five kilograms of cocaine into the\nUnited States, as well as to her role in a separate bank fraud\nscheme, and to making false statements relating to fraudulent claims\nsubmitted to Medicaid for reimbursement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTemitope\nAyoni Olaiya, aka \u201cTammy\u201d, engaged in multiple schemes carried\nout against the United States, implicating our healthcare system,\nfinancial system, our borders, and drug enforcement regime,\u201d said\nG. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of\nVirginia. \u201cDespite coming to this country legally more than a\ndecade ago and living on a green card, Olaiya chose to flout the law\nin pursuit of a diverse portfolio of criminal activities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to\ncourt documents, Olaiya, 41, who resided in Hyattsville, Maryland,\nand is a legal permanent resident, recruited men from the greater\nWashington, D.C. area to act as drug couriers; i.e., to travel to\nforeign countries to obtain drugs to bring back into the United\nStates. Olaiya opened bank accounts in the couriers\u2019 names,\nassisted them in obtaining passports and visas, and booked their\ntravel arrangements. The couriers that Olaiya recruited traveled\nprimarily to S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil, where they picked up kilogram\nquantities of cocaine hidden in the lining of soft-sided briefcases\nor attach\u00e9 cases. Altogether, law enforcement seized nearly seven\nkilograms of cocaine at three different United States airports from\nthree separate couriers recruited by Olaiya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to\nthe cocaine importation scheme, Olaiya also submitted falsified and\nfraudulent claims to the D.C. Department of Health Care Finance\n(DHCF), a health care benefit program funded by Medicaid. Olaiya\nworked as a personal care aide for various home health agencies in\nthe Washington D.C. area, and in order to receive payment for\nservices rendered, Olaiya was required to submit timesheets signed by\nher clients documenting the services rendered. Instead of submitting\ntime sheets for time actually worked providing health care services,\nOlaiya recruited Medicaid recipients to act as her \u201cpatients\u201d and\nto sign her falsified timesheets in return for a small amount of\nmoney as a kickback. On multiple occasions, Olaiya billed DHCF for\nhome health services she claimed to have provided while she was out\nof the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Separate and\napart from the cocaine importation and the home health services\nscheme, Olaiya also used her African goods business in Maryland to\ncarry out a bank fraud. Olaiya used accounts with payment platforms\nSquare and Stripe to make fraudulent charges on stolen credit card\nnumbers. Between June and December 2017, Olaiya submitted, or caused\nto be submitted, $381,500 in fraudulent credit card charges to the\nStripe account. Thereafter, Olaiya switched over to Square, and in\nthe course of about two months, racked up more than $100,000 in\nfraudulent charges. When Square informed Olaiya that the true account\nholder had challenged the transaction, Olaiya created handwritten,\nfalsified invoices documenting items purportedly purchased by the\naccount holder, and provided the fake invoices to Square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This case was\nprosecuted as part of Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force\n(OCDETF) Operation Girl From Ipanema. The OCDETF program is a federal\nmulti-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies\nsupplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved\nin the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug\ntrafficking organizations. The principal mission of the OCDETF\nprogram is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious drug\ntrafficking, weapons trafficking, and money laundering organizations,\nand those primarily responsible for the nation\u2019s illegal drug\nsupply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

G. Zachary\nTerwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia;\nRaymond Villanueva, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and\nCustoms Enforcement\u2019s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)\nWashington, D.C.; and Maureen R. Dixon, Special Agent in Charge of\nthe Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and\nHuman Services (HHS), made the announcement after sentencing by U.S.\nDistrict Judge Liam O’Grady. Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine E.\nRumbaugh prosecuted the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\ncopy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S.\nAttorney\u2019s Office<\/a> for\nthe Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and\ninformation are located on the website of the District\nCourt<\/a> for\nthe Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER<\/a>\nby\nsearching for Case No. 1:19-cr-294 and 1:19-cr-323<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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