A Houston drug dealer who turned party drugs into Tennessee property is headed to federal prison for two decades. On April 3, 2026, a judge ordered 33-year-old Cyrus Boujabadi to serve 240 months behind bars after he admitted running a multiyear distribution ring that moved MDMA and other drugs and funneled the profits into real estate. The sentence also includes five years of supervised release and a $5,000 fine.
Boujabadi pleaded guilty on June 6, 2025, to possessing MDMA with intent to distribute and to engaging in a monetary transaction in criminally derived property, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas. U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. handed down the 240 month prison term after hearing evidence that Boujabadi organized the operation from the top and used couriers to keep his hands off the product and away from investigators. The judge also ordered the five year term of supervised release and imposed the $5,000 fine, according to federal prosecutors.
The case briefly moved from the streets of Houston to the halls of the federal appeals court in 2024, when Boujabadi challenged his pretrial detention. The Fifth Circuit turned him down and noted he was facing multiple drug and money laundering counts, according to the court record. Justia reports that the opinion summarized the case history and upheld the district court’s detention order.
How investigators say the operation worked
Prosecutors say the conspiracy stretched from about January 2019 through July 2023 and was not limited to a single drug. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, the operation involved MDMA, methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, psilocybin and DMT.
Boujabadi coordinated deals through a messaging application, prosecutors say, directing deliveries and arranging payment through both cash and electronic transfers. During a search of his residence, agents seized meth, MDMA tablets, Xanax, THC products, psilocybin mushrooms, packaging materials, cash and cryptocurrency, according to federal authorities.
Investigators also traced drug proceeds into bricks and mortar. Prosecutors say Boujabadi used the illicit profits to purchase multiple properties in Tennessee, which have since been forfeited as part of the case.
Legal fallout and what’s next
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Casey N. MacDonald and Anibal J. Alaniz led the prosecution, while Tyler Foster and Elizabeth Wyman handled the forfeiture issues, according to court filings and federal prosecutors.
After Boujabadi finishes his prison time, he will be on the hook for that five year term of supervised release. Under federal rules, supervision will be overseen by U.S. Probation and comes with conditions that can be enforced with more prison time if they are violated, as outlined by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
