Video game pals admit to plot to firebomb Nebraska pharmacy

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A pharmacist and a drug abuser who met while playing online video games pleaded guilty Friday to federal charges after they plotted to firebomb a Nebraska pharmacy to benefit their own online black market drug dealing.

William Burgamy, 32, of Hanover, Maryland, ran a website called NeverPressedRX that sold oxycodone and other drugs over the darknet, a part of the Internet only accessible through encryption, prosecutors in U.S. District Court in Alexandria said.

His supplier was a real pharmacist, Hyrum Wilson, 41, of Auburn, Nebraska, who ran Hyrum’s Family Value Pharmacy. According to court papers, the two conspired to blow up a competing pharmacy in Wilson’s town, Cody’s U-Save Pharmacy. The two reasoned that Wilson’s pharmacy would pick up more business and allow him to illegally funnel even more drugs to the darknet operation without attracting the suspicion of federal regulators.

“Mr. Burgamy and I came up with a plan in which he would light a competing pharmacy on fire to drive business to my pharmacy,” Wilson said Friday in court when asked to explain his crime in his own words.

Authorities say a search of Burgamy’s home found eight loaded weapons in his residence. Text messages showed that he made a list of needed equipment for the firebombing that included body armor, weapons, bottles, lighter fluid and other materials.

Court records show that the NeverPressed website was operating since August 2019. Earlier that year, Wilson and Burgamy were partners in a skin-care product called Scargenix. In a 10-minute infomercial hosted by model Kathy Ireland, Wilson hawks a lotion for reducing scarring, featuring testimonials from Burgamy and Burgamy’s mother.

Both Burgamy and Wilson pleaded guilty to a drug trafficking conspiracy, money laundering, and conspiracy to use...