Three brothers ran drug scheme from downtown Raleigh apartments, police say

Two of three triplet brothers are suspected of running a drug-making operation from high-end apartments in downtown Raleigh, and the third brother also faces drug charges.

Narcotics detectives in Raleigh and at least two other Wake County police departments think the brothers, who were arrested in May, were making thousands of counterfeit Xanax bars mixed with a powerful opioid, according to search warrants made public Wednesday.

Atsoutse Dassou had an apartment on the 20th floor of the SkyHouse building on South Blount Street, and Etse Dossou had an apartment in the Hue building on Hargett Street, police said. The brothers are 21.

Police charged Atsoutse Dassou with selling and delivering a Schedule IV drug and with possessing it with the intent to manufacture, sell and distribute. Etse Dossou was charged with conspiring to commit the crimes with which his brother was charged.

The charges said Atsoutse Dossou sold 1,000 counterfeit Xanax bars to a police informant on March 8.

Atsou Yah-Lolo Anc Dossou was arrested the same day and accused of trafficking in opiates and possession with intent to make, sell or distribute Schedule IV drugs.

The detective who got the search warrants for Atsoutse Dossou's Google and Facebook accounts, Senior Detective B.R. Bizub, said Raleigh police had received a complaint that Atsoutse, Etse and "numerous other individuals" had "large amounts of Xanax (alprazolam) pills that possibly contain Fentanyl powder along with over $100,000 in U.S. currency" at the Hue apartment.

The pill presses mixed alprazolam, an anti-anxiety medication sold under the brand name Xanax, and a drug called U447700, a synthetic opioid, according to court documents.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has said the opioid has caused dozens of deaths in the country, including 10 in North Carolina.

A source had told a Garner police detective that Etse Dossou would buy about 10,000 fentanyl pills and 100,000 Xanax bars on the dark web, a secretive part of the internet used for criminal activities, including drugs and pornography.

Atsoutse Dossou drove luxury cars, according to the search warrant, including a 2009 Porsche Cayenne and a BMW.

Atsoutse Dossou is scheduled to be in court Sept. 11 on the charges from May. He is scheduled to be in court in December in connection with a charge of violating probation stemming from an earlier case.

A Wake County grand jury indicted Atsoutse Dossou in 2016 on drug charges, and he pleaded guilty in 2017 to possession with intent to sell a Schedule I drug. In April 2017, a judge placed him on 18 months' probation.

Etse Dossou, who has no criminal record in North Carolina, is also scheduled to be in court Sept. 11 on the May charges. He remains in custody in lieu of $100,000 bail.

When Etse and Atsou Dossou were arrested, they told booking officers at the Wake County Detention Center that they lived in a house Atsou owns on Ricochet Drive in Southeast Raleigh.

This story was originally published June 28, 2018 at 1:18 PM.