Sugar Land woman pleads guilty to role in drug-selling ring
Huntsville lab raked in millions from sales at local retail outlets
A Sugar Land woman pleaded guilty in Houston federal court Thursday to managing a lucrative kush manufacturing lab that raked in millions of dollars from the sale of synthetic drugs at local retail outlets.
Handcuffed and shackled in olive green jail clothing and wearing a black hijab, Ayisha Khurram, 42, told U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller she was guilty of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute 813 pounds of the street drug known as kush or K2. The drugs were found in black plastic garbage bags by federal agents who raided a U-Haul at the lab she ran near Huntsville.
Khurram is the 10th defendant to plead guilty to aiding in a drug conspiracy that was revealed after a massive criminal sting that also swept up a University of Houston-Victoria professor for running an illegal money transferring portion of the drug distribution endeavor. The professor is now serving a prison sentence.
Khurram also admitted to helping run a five-person kush lab on a property she co-owned with her boyfriend Muhammad Shariq Siddiqi, 48. Siddiqi pleaded guilty Nov. 2 to possession of the drugs and admitting he supplied $14 million of kush to retail stores in Houston. Both Khurram and Siddiqi were married to other people at the time of their arrests.
Khurram faces a maximum sentence of 20 years and up to three years of supervised release at sentencing. Prosecutors agreed to drop additional charges if she sustains her guilty plea and assists them, according to the plea agreement.
Khurram’s attorney David A. Breston and two family members present in court declined to comment on her plea.
The 2016 raid by federal agents targeted several independent players believed to be manufacturing, distributing or aiding in transactions related to kush — a leafy substance that’s soaked in a chemical mixture that mimics the effect of marijuana.
According to federal investigators, Khurram helped run the manufacturing end of the business with Siddiqi, who owned three gas stations, two smoke shops, multiple cars and had purchased six new properties worth $3 million in a two-year span. The two Pakistani natives oversaw a team of workers who produced the drug in cement mixers at a farm near Huntsville, according to court testimony.
Participants amassed so much money from selling synthetic cannabinoids, they couldn’t get rid of it fast enough, officials said. A Drug Enforcement Administration agent testified that police were summoned to the school Siddiqi’s son attended because the boy was handing out $20 and $100 bills to classmates.