MINNEAPOLIS - An Internet spammer who made $24 million by using the Internet to sell prescription drugs to addicts could get up to life in prison - with prosecutors arguing that Christopher Smith broke numerous rules and court orders, obstructed justice, and planned to hire hitmen to kill a witness and his own wife.

Smith, 27, of Burnsville, is a high school dropout who gained notoriety as a computer spammer called "Rizler." Court documents say he began spamming as a teen, marketing dubious or fraudulent products online. He eventually moved into selling prescription painkillers through an online enterprise called Xpress Pharmacy Direct.

He was living the high life - with several luxury cars and a $1.1 million home he paid for with cash - when the feds shut him down in 2005.

He was convicted Nov. 22, 2006, in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on nine counts, including unlawful distribution of drugs, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and continuing criminal enterprise.

But in court documents and during a hearing on Tuesday, prosecutors said incarceration didn't stop Smith as he awaited trial. They argued he should receive between 30 years and life in prison for his crimes, and for continuing to obstruct justice.

Smith's attorney, Joseph Friedberg, said his client should receive a lessor sentence of 20 years in prison.

No sentencing was issued Tuesday and the hearing will be continued on Wednesday afternoon.

According to prosecutors, Smith's customers could order drugs without even a cursory examination of their medical condition. A New Jersey doctor issued sham prescriptions for the orders: More than 70,000 prescriptions were approved over time, sometimes hundreds of orders a day. The orders were primarily for the addictive painkiller hydrocodone.

Smith used telemarketing call centers in Burnsville and the Dominican Republic to solicit customers and repeat orders, knowing he was targeting addicts, prosecutors said.

"Smith recognized from very early on that many of his customers were addicts, but to Smith, that just meant repeat sales, and he exploited their additions by having his telemarketers place frequent calls …" prosecutors said in court documents.

When the operation was shut down in May 2005, Smith went to the Dominican Republic to set up an Internet pharmacy there. "The idea was for him to set up his lucrative business overseas where the U.S. authorities were without jurisdiction to shut him down," prosecutors said in court documents. Smith was arrested upon his return to Minnesota.

In August 2005, Smith and others were indicted in the online pharmacy scheme. Smith was sent to a halfway house, but within his first month, authorities discovered he had a computer laptop and a PDA smuggled in to him, court documents say.

He was then sent to the Sherburne County Jail in Elk River, where he again circumvented the rules. According to court testimony Tuesday, telephone calls made by inmates were recorded - except for those between defendants and attorneys, which are supposed to be confidential. Smith avoided having his private calls recorded by first calling his attorney's office, then arranging to have the call transferred to another person and continued as a three-way phone call.

He also created a phony attorney number, then used the Internet to have calls to that number forwarded to an associate in the Philippines. Authorities discovered this, and subsequently discovered that Smith was making additional calls with another inmate's phone access number. Authorities began recording these calls, and on March 4, 2006, they recorded Smith allegedly making plans to have a witness killed before she could testify against him. In that call with an associate in the Philippines, Smith discussed threatening a witness in his upcoming trial.

" … if she wants to talk on the stand, that's perfectly fine, but we're also going to give her the option of picking which one of her kids she's going to sacrifice for doing so," Smith said.