Couple who own eldercare home busted in meth case
A wife and husband who own and operate an eldercare facility in Vallejo were arrested for allegedly producing methamphetamine pills that featured the Tesla logo, Kool-Aid’s smiling pitcher and President Trump’s name and likeness, authorities said Friday.
Roselle Cipriano, 36, and Henry Benson, 37, were taken into custody Thursday at their business, Genesis Care Home for the Elderly, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The couple face federal charges of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute a mixture and substance containing methamphetamine.
The DEA’s Sacramento office began investigating the couple in 2017 after learning of a suspected counterfeit tablet operation, authorities said. An undercover investigation resulted in purchases of thousands of tablets that varied in color and logo.
Authorities said some of the yellow tablets had the Tesla emblem, others bore the smiling pitcher of the Kool-Aid Man and additional tab-
lets were embossed with the likeness of Trump, whose last name was stamped on the back. Some tablets were in the shape of blue minions, officials added.
Laboratory tests determined the pills had traces of methamphetamine, and agents identified Cipriano and Benson as the source of the pills.
A woman who answered the phone Friday at the Genesis Care Home for the Elderly said the arrest did not occur at the care facility, but instead at a building next door. She would not specify whether the building was part of the care facility.
“I’m very upset,” the woman said, adding that she has known the couple for “a long time.”
The woman declined to comment further.
A search warrant uncovered about 31 pounds of tablets containing methamphetamine, nearly 17 pounds of methamphetamine, a shotgun and a pill press, authorities said.
Cipriano and Benson appeared Friday in Sacramento Federal Court for a detention hearing.
The care facility, whose ownership is under Cipriano’s name, remains open and residents are being taken care of by medical staff, authorities said.