Influencer Wyatt Pasek has been jailed for drug dealing. Photo / Instagram
Influencer Wyatt Pasek has been jailed for drug dealing. Photo / Instagram
A 22-year-old Instagram influencer known for flaunting his outrageous lifestyle on social media will spend the next 17 years behind bars.
Wyatt Pasek, from Orange County in the US, was slapped with the long sentence this week after being accused of selling fake pills laced with fentanyl, reports target="_blank">News.com.au.
Along with associates Duc Cao, 22, and Isaiah Suarez, 23, Pasek bought fentanyl online from China before processing it in a secret lab where it was disguised as oxycodone.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the trio sold "massive quantities" of the pills online across the US.
When Pasek was arrested in 2018, police seized nearly 100,000 pills, a stash of fentanyl and piles of cash.
Before his arrest, Pasek lived the high life, living in a plush penthouse apartment and spending his days surrounded by scantily clad women and luxury cars and goods and even posing in baths of money.
"The defendants in this case played a direct role in fuelling this nation's opioid crisis," United States Attorney Nick Hanna said in a statement, according to The Mirror.
"The use of powerful drugs such as fentanyl in counterfeit pills intentionally made to look like less-lethal opioids demonstrates a complete disrespect for human life."
In the last expletive-laden video shared on his Instagram profile, Pasek counts a pile of $US100 notes on the hood of a luxury car.
He's also shared photos of himself in exotic locations across the globe, including Monaco and Paris.
Pasek sold the pills online for around 12 months, and in that time he allegedly raked in $31,000 in cash and splurged on a luxury watch with diamonds, gold bars and thousands in cryptocurrency, The Mirror reports.
According to NBC Los Angeles, he also bought about $150,583 ($A224,000) in gold "using bitcoin from the drug dealing".
In one Instagram post featuring Pasek hanging out the roof of a luxury vehicle, he accompanied the snap with the caption: "It all started as a dream. Always believe in yourself, even when all else feels like you shouldn't. Because if I didn't, I probably wouldn't have the greatest gifts of all TIME and that is the freedom! Freedom for time, freedom of location and most importantly freedom of finances. Life will give you what you put in to it. If you put in the average, it will give you the average in return. If you demand greatness and do not settle for any less, then always believe in yourself that you will succeed yourself there with the right amount of patience and persistence."
That freedom has come to an end, with Pasek now set to spend the remainder of his youth behind bars.
Meanwhile, his associates received far lighter sentences, with Cao sentenced to 87 months behind bars, while Suarez will serve 37 months in prison.
