A federal felon admitted Tuesday to charges connected to making fake anti-anxiety pills at his house, the second time he’s been accused of making pills with his own equipment. 

Josh Regatuso, 26, of Brighton Heights, pleaded guilty to holding counterfeit drugs for sale and possession of a pill press.

Federal agents said Regatuso, who had spent six months in prison following a 2017 drug indictment, relied on another person to receive binding powder and die stamps for use in a press and was making fake alprazolam pills with etizolam, which is not approved for use by the DEA or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Agents searched his house in May 2021 and found two pill presses, etizolam powder, fake pills and two bags of binding powder.

Prosecutors said the bogus pills had the same markings as those used by a legitimate company that sells alprazolam.

Tom Hodnett, head of the DEA in Philadelphia, which covers Pittsburgh, said many of the fake pills DEA comes across are made in other countries but agents continue to see pills made by secret labs like Regatuso's.

In the 2017 case, Regatuso was accused of making Xanax pills, using his house to do it and carrying a gun in furtherance of a drug crime.

A raid in that case also turned up two pill presses and other pill-making equipment, along with a .45 caliber pistol. 

Regatuso is facing 10 years in federal prison. 

First Published: July 27, 2022, 8:54 p.m.