UH Professor Convicted In Relation To Massive Synthetic Narcotics Case
HOUSTON - A 37-year-old resident of Sugar Land has entered a guilty plea to aiding and abetting an unlicensed money transmitting business, announced Drug Enforcement (DEA) Houston Division, Special Agent in Charge, Joseph M. Arabit and U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson.
Law enforcement identified Omar Al Nasser during a multi-year, multi-agency federal investigation into one of the largest synthetic cannabinoid trafficking enterprises in the country. The investigation revealed Al Nasser was as an associate of one of the primary distributors of synthetic cannabinoids in the Southern District of Texas. As part of his plea today, Al Nasser admitted he was paid to wire more than $200,000 in U.S. currency from a bank in the United States to accounts in the country of Jordan.
Al Nasser has a doctoral degree in business administration with an emphasis in finance which he earned from the University of Texas-Pan America in 2009. He is listed as an associate professor of finance in the University of Houston system.
U.S. District Judge Gray Miller accepted the guilty plea and set sentencing for Feb. 16, 2017. At that time, Al Nasser faces up to five years in prison and a possible $250,000 fine.
The Drug Enforcement Administration and Houston Police Department conducted the investigation along with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation with the assistance of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Conroe Police Department, sheriff’s offices in Harris and Polk counties, Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Jocher and Nancy Herrera are prosecuting the case.
