privatenavigator

There have been a lot of reports lately about online pharmacies selling counterfeit drugs. If you are as alarmed about that act as much as most people, you might take comfort in the knowledge that the government is actually taking action against such insult to unsuspecting buyers.In a release dated January 21, 2011, the Department of Justice stated that recently a Costa Rica man (extradited to Kansas City, Kansas) was charged with (and plead guilty to) operating an Internet pharmacy that sold 1.4 million worth of “misbranded and counterfeit drugs as well as controlled substances.”Manuel Calvelo, 37, was arrested in Puerto Rico and extradited to Kansas where he pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of conspiracy to commit drug trafficking.In his plea he admitted that between the years 2005 and 2008 he and another man operated more than one web site offering drugs without a prescription (that were in fact misbranded or counterfeit) to customers in the United States in direct violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.Some of the brand names offered on Calvelo’s site included Viagra, Depakote, Glucophage, Zoloft, Lipitor, Cialis, Xanax, Ativan and Klonopin; as well as controlled substances including Alprazolam (sold under the brand name Xanax), Lorazapam (Ativan) and Clonazepam (Klonopin).The Department of Justice reported that in 2007 an undercover agent from the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations made purchases from Calvelo’s Web sites. The agent later contacted Calvelo through the Costa Rica Off-Shore Business Center posing as a pharmaceutical wholesaler in the United States seeking to establish an on-line pharmacy.Sentencing is set for May 3, 2011 with Calvelo facing a penalty of up to five years in a federal prison and a fine up to 250,000. Not much when you consider the people that were relying on the efficacy and viability of the drugs they purchased from him.Viagra and its jokes aside, Klonopin is used for seizure control and Glucophage is used for those trying to control diabetes two medications that surely should never be altered.

mgeedey :: Jan.26.2011 :: Cybercrime :: No Comments »