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.

I can get you guys vicodin for $14 a pill now

14$ holy crap. spend the other 6 and buy E.

hahahahahahaha

DEA = mafia

dude, WTF? i can go out downtown right now and get it for $4 for 10mg ones

and if I use my online pharmacy that I usually do, i get 120 10/325's for $70

you are getting ripped off man

very interesting stuff....let's see who's next

Do you have a link for this news snippet?

Take their houses! What ever happened to due process? Once again the US Constitution gets shit upon!

damnit, i just bought a bottle of vics too. hope they weren't one of the ones that got shut down.

In Florida, it is very hard to seize a " house " ... This is why many " shady" people and business elect residency there :winkwink:

BTW, does this mean I will get less spam ? :1orglaugh

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=53814



Here's another newspaper article taken from another board:

By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News

Federal agents arrested 16 people Wednesday in North Texas and Florida in connection with an Arlington-based Internet pharmacy scam that the government alleges has reaped more than $200 million in illegal profits.

Karen Tandy, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said the ring peddled the drugs at up to four times the retail price through 23 illegal Internet pharmacies.

Described as the largest investigation of its kind in the country, it is the culmination of a 2 ½-year investigation known as "CyberX," which centers on Rakesh Jyoti Saran, federal officials said Wednesday.

Mr. Saran, 43, of Arlington is described as the ringleader of a scam that officials said included duping prescription drug wholesalers into selling him and his cohorts painkillers, diet pills, anti-anxiety drugs and drugs containing codeine, among others, at deep discounts reserved for legitimate businesses selling to hospitals and other institutions.

The ring would then, according to prosecutors, peddle the drugs to individuals at up to four times the retail price through a network of 23 illegal Internet pharmacies. Warehouses for the drugs were within an approximate 15-mile radius of Arlington, officials said.

Federal officials allege that the enterprise generated about $50,000 a day in profits. Agents have identified millions in assets to seize, including 11 vehicles and seven properties. That includes Mr. Saran's huge house under construction in Arlington, plus others in Mansfield, Miami and Boca Raton, Fla.

"These people are a new kind of drug kingpin," said Karen Tandy, administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration who was in Dallas on Wednesday to announce the arrests.

The operation "puts out of business cyber criminals who were selling powerful narcotics without legitimate prescriptions to anyone with a computer and cash," she said.

"These high-tech drug dealers were fueling addictions by selling the very drugs intended to prevent and treat ailments ? not inflict them. Just as important, this operation makes more Americans aware that buying prescription drugs from these rogue Web sites is illegal and dangerous."

Ms. Tandy estimated that about 4,600 Internet pharmacies are offering illegal prescriptions online. {THERE IS WHERE THE 4600 NUMBER IS COMING FROM !}

Federal officials said that none of the doctors who signed off on prescriptions without seeing the drug customer had been implicated in the criminal case yet, but hinted that could change and that some could face license suspensions. It was also unclear whether people who bought these drugs would be charged.

"The investigation is ongoing," said Richard Roper, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, whose office is prosecuting the CyberX cases.

Officials said the criminals were so brazen that they had a shipment of illegal prescriptions delivered to the Dallas DEA headquarters. The initials of the person "buying" the drugs: D.E.A.

In March, a Dallas federal judge sentenced Clayton Fuchs to 20 years in prison for leading a ring of doctors and pharmacists illegally selling prescription drugs over the Internet.

All Hale the DEA

It would be interesting to see a list of companies with URLs?

shhhhhhhhhh

This one was no surprise.....

Talking about mafia :1orglaugh

When I would promote clubs I'd have to set aside roughly 10% every night I was packed, for both the fire marshal and ATF.
If I didn't pay ATF what they considered "fair" they'd come in my club and arrest 3 -4 drunk 19 year olds and fine the club owner (so it was passed down to me).
Fire marshal was far worse he'd empty out the club for a head count and then count them again on the way back in, so I'd get fined 30 dollars per person over capacity.

We ran an estimate of what the fire marshal made a week and it was close to 2 grand just from payoffs.

GREAT!

That much LESS spam in my inbox!

Is this good or bad?

Good for us people that are sick of their spam barrages.

:thumbsup

I wonder if I can still get my original Stacker 3 with Ephedrin now

;-(

Those are referred to as 325's, and signifies how many mg's of hydrocodone is in them. The "10" in 10/325 signifies the level of acetametaphin. I believe you are referring to what is known as a Norco.

yeah, what a relief

:smokin

I wish they took all those DEA agents and had them help shut down cp sites with such zeal ...

:2 cents:

I bet $10,000,000 that the government was PUSHED / PAID by the pharma. companies to go after them because of lost sales..

Matt

No, the 10 is how much hydrocodone is in there. The 325 is the acetaminophen. Norco's have both 7.5/325 and 10/325

(been taking them for years for migraines :thumbsup )

I would think that most CP sites would be hosted outside of the US?

I bet the pharmacy sites that are outside of the US are HAPPY, because they just gained a whole bunch of people looking to buy cheaper drugs elsewhere...

Matt

hahaha werd.

haha, wow, thanks for some intelligence in here...i was about to reply the same thing

god, fuck, i WISH norco's had 325mg of hydrocodone in them!!!!! now THAT would be a night to remember!

but yeah, we get the 10/325 norcos online for $70 for 120 of them, once a month....i take them for my back, and my wife for her endo

Government always lies. Government sole purpose is to perpetuate itself for the benefit of those in power. Ask George.

haha, thanks for trying to looks smart though.....LOL

and no, on the street, usually they refer to the pills by the amount of hydro in them...so we have 10's here at the house

ICQ me. I'll tell you were to get Ephedriene HCL

Thats no good... just no good.

and it im still getting more and more pharm spam nowadays... (its fucking unreal)...

No doubt.

Of course the government isn't losing any money due to cp so its not nearly the priority.

:disgust

Pharmacies that sell scheduled drugs give real operations a bad name.

Good point!

That would make no sense at all.. The "pharma" companies sold them the drugs.. why would they report a customer to the police ?? they just "lost" a sale.. If they ( the pharmaceutical companies ) didnt want the drugs to be sold all they had to do is not sell them the drugs..

Lets say the pharmaceutical companies sold 20 billion valiums a year through legit prescriptions.. and another 5 billion through internet companies that didnt check prescriptions.. all it boils down to for the pharm companies is , an extra 5 billion in sales.. if they reported them , it would mean they sell 5 billion less.

You would have a point if most of the customers were legit patients with an existing prescription already, but i dont think thats very likely.

great send the soccer moms with vicodin addictions downtown to pick up their shit now

good thinking DEA!

yeah... you're right. people should just buy fake and counterfeit drugs from the privacy of their homes. thats not dangerous at all and the government has no obligation to stop it.

I'd rather prescription drug addicts buy fake shit, while cp peddlers/buyers get taken the fuck down.

For every person abusing knock-off drugs from spammers, there's another fuck rubbing one out to pictures of little kids.

damn 4600 sites that's sick... oh well pharmacy is a risky biz

fucking wow is all i can say

I think the DEA is about to become a top domain name owner!

"That would make no sense at all.. The "pharma" companies sold them the drugs.. why would they report a customer to the police ?? they just "lost" a sale.. If they ( the pharmaceutical companies ) didnt want the drugs to be sold all they had to do is not sell them the drugs..

Lets say the pharmaceutical companies sold 20 billion valiums a year through legit prescriptions.. and another 5 billion through internet companies that didnt check prescriptions.. all it boils down to for the pharm companies is , an extra 5 billion in sales.. if they reported them , it would mean they sell 5 billion less.

You would have a point if most of the customers were legit patients with an existing prescription already, but i dont think thats very likely."



wrong. the dea setup the taskforce which is funded partially by the pharma companies because they were loosing sales to offshore generic suppliers which allow there drugs to be sold dirt cheap and the pharmacies use the USA brand names to sell the generics......This is all fact.

you don't have 10.000.000, idiot

How do you know that a pharma company is legit or not?

if you don't have to speak to a doctor, it is probably fake

most real ones require a doctor to call your house, you have to fax or send them medical records, etc...

Good call

Those online pharmacies can be deadly with people self-prescribing..
that being said :)
doesn't stop me from buying!
heheh
but I'm glad it's getting tougher..