OAKLAND — Shortly after they pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges at the same court hearing, three men who ran a counterfeit prescription pill operation out of Richmond were sentenced to two years and six months in federal prison.

The 30-month sentences for Eshai Delacruz, Dominick Wong, and Rohan Kumar are far below the 57-70-month sentences requested by prosecutors. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who handed down the sentence, also rejected defense requests to give the three no jail time at all, saying it was “unbelievable” how many people they put at risk by making pills laced with methamphetamine and passing them off as party drugs.

“It’s a non-starter,” Gonzalez Rogers said, referring to the requests to not hand down a prison term. “Everybody’s going to get custodial time. … The number of people who were damaged, potentially, by the amount of methamphetamine put out on the streets in the form of pills taken by people who did not know any better is unconscionable.”

At the same time, the judge acknowledged prison time is “different” during a pandemic and told the three defendants she was giving them “a break.” She also noted defense arguments that recounted childhood traumas, including abuse, suffered by the defendants.

“I do not think you had guidance as young people, as children, and it put you on a really wrong path. But you’re now adults … you have to consider that with actions comes responsibility,” she said, later warning them they’d appear before her if they committed additional crimes on after their sentence, but adding “we will help you” stay on the right path.

All three defendants were released shortly after their arrests in 2019. Gonzalez Rogers allowed Kumar extra time to turn himself in so he can witness the birth of his child in a month.

The three defendants were charged with playing various roles in a scheme to manufacture and sell counterfeit Xanax — an anti-depressant — and Adderall, a drug used to treat ADHD. They bought a pill presser that advertised its ability to make 15,000 pills per hour, though a defense attorney argued assuming the defendants made that many pills would be as ridiculous as expecting every Tesla driver to do 170 miles per hour on the freeway.

According to prosecutors, approximately three and a half pounds of methamphetamine, as well as pills of Adderall and Alprazolam, the main ingredient for Xanax, were found at a home on the 100 block of Malcolm Drive in Richmond, where the pill press was also located. Authorities also counted around 300 marijuana plants. Federal prosecutors said the home was reinforced with “fortifications” to prevent break-ins.

“With the pill presses capable of churning out thousands of pills per hour, this was a lucrative operation. Wong was offering fake Adderall by the ‘boat’ (1,000 pills), at a time, going for $2,000 – with bulk purchase discounts for buyers ordering up to 20,000 or 40,000 pills or more,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing brief.

Before sentencing, all three defendants apologized in court. They said that since being arrested they’ve taken advantage of pretrial services resources, found jobs, and were in a better place than when they were manufacturing drugs for a living. Delacruz said he started his own business and turned towards art as an outlet and another income stream.

“When I was committing this crime, I felt terrible about it, hardly sleeping or eating,” Delacruz said. “I felt so bad about people harming themselves with these drugs and that further harmed my mental health … I truly believe this was the best thing for me and I’m thankful I was caught.”

Wong’s attorney, Douglas Rappaport, spoke at length about how a non-custodial sentence would be a greater benefit to society than incarcerating the defendants, and asked for 500 hours of community service instead. He became emotional as he recounted getting dressed Thursday morning and noticing a wire coat hanger, recalling how his client was beaten with such an instrument as a child and ran away from home at age 10, sleeping at friends’ houses or kids’ play areas at fast food restaurants.

“If we want to address crime, if we want to protect the public, penal sentences are not the only way to do that … we have had a great sea change in the way we look at drug laws,” Rappaport said, adding that his father — a longtime public defender — recently told him about a marijuana case he handled decades ago that resulted in an eight-year prison sentence.

Rappaport also pointed out that Wong ordered the pill presser to his own address and used his real name. When discussing their illicit business, the defendants texted each other obvious code names like “cupcakes” and made other obvious blunders that made it easy for authorities to investigate them, he said.

“These are not sophisticated drug dealers in this operation,” he said.