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Proposed Changes to WHOIS system privacy will help hide internet criminals, NABP director warns
In this August 1, 2018 editorial for Inside Sources, National Association of Boards of Pharmacy Director Carmen Catizone raises the alarm about ICANN’s proposed changes to the WHOIS system, a database that identifies the owners of web domains. These changes are meant to bring WHOIS in compliance with new European privacy laws but, he warns, they would also impede law enforcement and others’ efforts to “connect the dots and link up different websites run as part of large criminal enterprises” like drug counterfeiting rings.
[...]Breath Fresheners Substituted for Legitimate Medicine in $50M Diverted Pill Scheme
The former president of Cumberland Distribution, Inc. was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in a 32-month long scheme that saw over $50 million of diverted drugs shipped to pharmacies around the country, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Indicted in January 2013 along with co-conspirators Charles Jeffrey Edwards and…
[...]South Carolina Man Produced Counterfeit Prescription Pills with Pill Presses and Imported Fentanyl
A pretrial bail hearing gave the world some insights into a case out of South Carolina that is still sealed. Agents with a DEA-lead task force arrested Eric Hughes in August of 2017 after a car accident caused thousands of plls to spill out of his vehicle and onto the roadway. Hughes is allegedly the leader of a counterfeit pill drug ring that used rental properties to manufacture millions of counterfeit Xanax and oxycodone pills which were sold online…
[...]North Carolina Brothers Believed To Have Sold Counterfeit Xanax to High Schoolers
Police arrested triplet brothers in North Carolina on suspicion of manufacturing and selling counterfeit Xanax that contained fentanyl. An investigation led police to believe the trio to be a major supplier of those pills to Holly Springs High School students…
[...]Rhode Island Man Was The Organizer For An International Fentanyl Pill Ring
Newly released court documents show the role that Steven Barros Pinto played in an international drug ring that made and sold fake fentanyl pills across the United States, including in North Dakota, Oregon, North Carolina, Florida, Colorado, Maryland, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Georgia. The DOJ believes that the counterfeit pills made by this ring with fentanyl and other illegal ingredients caused multiple deaths or serious injuries in North Carolina, New Jersey, and Oregon…
[...]Foreign Hosted Online Pharmacy Sold Counterfeit Pills Made with Fentanyl Analogues to Americans
In a first case of its kind, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted two people from New Jersey for operating multiple fake online pharmacies that shipped some customers counterfeit pills made with fentanyl. The pills that Evelin Bracy and Jorge Rodriguez Lopez sold killed one of their customers in Boise, Idaho…
[...]Mother And Son In New Jersey Indicted For Selling Counterfeit Fentanyl Pills
The U.S. Department of Justice announced indictments against a New Jersey mother and son for their roles in a drug trafficking conspiracy. Candace and Tyler Gottlieb both sold counterfeit pain pills that contained both fentanyl and heroin to a confidential human source…
[...]Partnership for Safe Medicines Statement on FDA Working Group on Drug Importation
Washington (July 19, 2018) – Shabbir Imber Safdar, executive director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, released the following statement regarding today’s announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services to create a drug importation working group at FDA: “We are deeply concerned about today’s announcement, particularly given the deaths of Americans in at…
[...]Drug Importation, Counterfeit Medications and the Pharmacist’s Liability: A Case Study and Legal Precedent
For the last 15 years, the FDA and HHS have opposed drug importation for safety reasons, but there is another question that is often overlooked: If a pharmacy inadvertently distributes a counterfeit drug it legally purchased from a foreign wholesaler, can the pharmacist be held liable? A 2004 lawsuit, Fagan v. AmerisourceBergen Co, raises disquieting questions.
[...]Pennsylvania Man Sentenced To Over 17 Years For Selling Fake Fentanyl Pills
The U.S. DOJ announced that Nathan Ott of Chambersburg, PA received a 210-month prison sentence. Ott pleaded guilty to purchasing fentanyl by the kilogram online and using it to manufacture counterfeit pills which he and his six co-defendants then sold online and around town…
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