The Department of Justice announced today that two Athens,
Texas, residents have been sentenced for their role in the smuggling of
imitation, unapproved and misbranded prescription drugs from China.
Tom Giddens, 57, and Wanda Hollis, 63, were each sentenced
to serve 15 months in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Schneider
in the Eastern District of Texas. In
April 2015, they each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to smuggle the
drugs into the United States. A third
defendant, Catherine Nix, 42, also of Athens, will be sentenced at a later
date.
In 2009, the defendants smuggled at least 43 known
shipments, totaling approximately 106,000 pills, from China to Texas. The shipments contained unapproved, bogus
versions of several U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs
that, because of the health and safety risks associated with their use, require
valid prescriptions to dispense. The
prescription drugs seized included: Xanax®; Valium®; sibutramine; Cialis®;
Viagra®; and, Stilnox®, marketed in the United States as Ambien®. None of the pills that were seized and tested
were legitimate. Some were sub-potent,
but most contained entirely different active ingredients from the legitimate,
approved versions. The defendants also
attempted to conceal their smuggling by using shipping labels that
misrepresented the contents of their shipments, including customs declarations
falsely describing the contents as “gifts” or “toys” with low declared monetary
values, and by using multiple addresses in an effort to reduce the likelihood
of seizures by U.S. Customs and Border Protection authorities.
“Consumers of prescription drugs need to know that what they
are buying is legitimate, safe, and approved,” said Principal Deputy Assistant
Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer, head of the Justice Department’s Civil
Division. “This illegal operation
introduced over 100,000 bogus pills into the stream of commerce, potentially
posing a huge public health and safety risk.
Consumers should know that the drugs they are buying are exactly what they
appear to be, and not false versions of name-brand products that could
ultimately do them more harm than good.”
“This office remains committed to stemming the increasing
flood of illegitimate prescription drugs that come into East Texas,” said U.S.
Attorney John M. Bales of the Eastern District of Texas. “This case puts the very real, inherent
dangers of counterfeit prescription drugs on full display. These pills looked almost exactly like their
legitimate counterparts, but lacked any of the safety or efficacy of the
legitimate versions.”
“FDA’s laws are in place to ensure that consumers have
access to safe and effective prescription drugs,” said Director George M.
Karavetsos of the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations. “Those who evade those laws risk harming the
public’s health. We will continue to
work with our law enforcement partners to keep the U.S. marketplace free of
illegitimate medical products.”
This case was investigated by the FDA-OCI and U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S.
Attorney Allen Hurst of the Eastern District of Texas and by Trial Attorney
John W.M. Claud of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch.
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