Two Manhattan Men Charged with Importing One Million Doses of GBL into New York City

The Charges

On June 17, 2026, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York charged Mark Dygdon, 48, and Rodrigo Castro, 34, with conspiring to distribute gamma-butyrolactone, commonly known as GBL. According to the New York Post, prosecutors allege the two Manhattan men imported approximately seven tons of the drug into New York City between August 2023 and June 2026, enough to constitute roughly one million individual doses.

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton called GBL "liquid poison." A single dose, he said, can be lethal.

GBL goes by street names including Blue Nitro and Revivarant. It produces euphoric and sedative effects, which is why it has long been associated with drug-facilitated sexual assault. If convicted, both men face up to 20 years in federal prison.

What the Defense Is Saying

Both Dygdon and Castro have pleaded not guilty.

Castro's attorney, Daniel McGuinness, told the New York Post that his client is "very eager to clear his name and prove his innocence." McGuinness acknowledged prosecutors say they have business records and source information linking Castro to the alleged distribution scheme, but he said the defense has NOT yet reviewed that evidence. "We look to see that information and see where everything went wrong, in their believing that my client is involved in this activity," McGuinness said. A lawyer for Dygdon did not respond to a request for comment from the Post.

Federal drug conspiracy charges are broad, and the government's burden is to prove both men knowingly participated in a distribution scheme, not merely that GBL was moved through a supply chain they were adjacent to. McGuinness's statement suggests the defense will contest whether Castro's role, whatever it was, rises to criminal intent under the statute. No trial date has been announced, and no conviction has been entered.

Scale Matters Here

Seven tons of GBL is not a small supply. A 2019 DEA press release announced that 176 pounds of cocaine seized in the Bronx was described at the time as one of the largest cocaine seizures in New York City in recent years. The GBL allegedly imported by Dygdon and Castro would be roughly 80 times that weight.

GBL is a controlled substance because of its potency and its specific use as a weapon in sexual assault. Unlike fentanyl-laced cocaine, which kills through inadvertent overdose, GBL in this context raises a distinct public-safety concern: it is deployed intentionally to incapacitate victims. That distinction matters when assessing why federal prosecutors, not just local law enforcement, are handling this case.

Federal Involvement and Precedent

The Southern District of New York has jurisdiction here, and Jay Clayton's office is prosecuting directly. The DEA's 2019 Bronx case showed the template: federal indictments, multi-agency coordination, and charges that carry longer sentencing exposure than state drug counts. The GBL case appears to follow that same playbook, with the Manhattan U.S. Attorney stepping in on what would otherwise be a state narcotics matter because of the volume and the specific harm profile of the substance.

The 2019 DEA case also noted that drug trafficking networks increasingly blend cocaine with club drugs sold at nightlife venues. GBL fits squarely in that nightlife-targeting pattern.

What Comes Next

The central unresolved question is where the seven tons of GBL was sourced. Federal import charges typically follow the supply chain, and prosecutors' mention of "business records" suggests a paper trail that could implicate suppliers or distributors beyond Dygdon and Castro. Whether additional defendants will be charged has not been announced by the U.S. Attorney's Office as of June 20, 2026.