Ken Hechtman (born December 16, 1967) is a freelance journalist and convicted drug dealer from Canada who achieved brief international prominence in late 2001 when Afghanistan's Taliban government charged him with being a United States spy while he researched a story for the Montreal Mirror. Afghanistan tried, acquitted, and released him after a short time in jail.[1]
He attended Columbia University, and was expelled his freshman year for stealing uranium-238 from the university's former Manhattan Project laboratories. He married fellow Montrealer and journalist Wendy Hechtman on September 12, 2015. They moved to Nebraska in February 2016.[2]
According to police investigators, Hechtman and his wife Wendy invented a pastel-colored version of carfentanil, an opioid that can be up to 10,000 times more powerful than morphine and that can kill a human with only a few grains touching human skin. Hechtman and Wendy allegedly "developed a sophisticated marketing system with a sales team of about 40 people."[3]
Kenneth and Wendy were charged with conspiracy to manufacture 10 grams or more of fentanyl analogue, conspiracy to distribute a fentanyl analogue, and possession with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of a fentanyl analogue between on or about March 2017 and October 30, 2017.[4] They pleaded guilty, and were both sentenced to 15 years in federal prison in 2018.[5]
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