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DEA Shuts Down 4,600 Pharmacy Sites
Federal drug enforcement agents said they arrested at least 18 people, including three in South Florida, and halted prescription writing by dozens of doctors and a pharmacist in a crackdown Wednesday on illegal sales of medications over the Internet.
The Drug Enforcement Administration suspended the registrations of 20 doctors and 22 Internet pharmacies in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, to stop them from writing or filling prescriptions.
Agents also shut down at least 4,600 Web sites the suspects controlled, and seized 2,400 checks and money orders written by individuals for $200 each. They also seized seven luxury cars and boxes of cash that had not yet been counted in the yearlong multi-agency investigation dubbed "Operation CYBERx."
They have started legal procedures to seize several homes belonging to those arrested, valued at about $8 million.
"E-traffickers are just a modern way of saying drug dealers," DEA Administrator Karen Tandy said in a statement. The arrests were announced Wednesday at a news conference in Dallas.
The sting "puts out of business cyber criminals who were selling powerful narcotics without legitimate prescriptions to anyone with a computer and cash," Tandy said. "This operation makes more Americans aware that buying prescription drugs from these rogue Web sites is illegal and dangerous."
Those arrested largely operated Internet sites where orders were placed or handled.
Among the suspects were five people the DEA alleged were ringleaders. They were identified as Steve Rosner of Boca Raton; Gaston Blanchet and Gil Lozano of Miami; S. Ted Solomon of Orlando; and Johar Saran of Arlington, Texas.
The overwhelming majority of the drugs sold were painkillers, anti-anxiety drugs such as Valium, and weight loss drugs, DEA said. Most of them cost far more than they would if purchased legitimately and were bought by addicted people. Electronic bulletin boards exist that list Web sites where people can go to buy such drugs without having a legitimate prescription.
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