Illinois Man Charged in Counterfeit Drug Bust

Thousands of fake valium found in an Illinois business after FDA and CBP intercept a United States Postal Service package.

Authorities charged an Illinois businessman with unlawful possession of a controlled substance after authorities discovered a package, sent to his address, contained bogus drugs.

According to a report from Sun-Times Media story:

• Bond has been set at $30,000 for a Naperville man found in possession of thousands of counterfeit Valium pills, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s office announced Monday.

• Amin Rupani, 40, of the 2600 block of Salix Circle in Naperville, has been charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a release from the sheriff’s office said. He was arrested at his computer business, Precision Technologies.

• The Sheriff’s Police Special Operations Unit began its investigation into Rupani’s activities after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, along with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, detained a package containing counterfeit Valium pills. The 20,000 pills packed inside plastic containers had Rupani’s business address, but a fake name.

• On Dec. 9, sheriff’s office investigators, along with agents from the FDA and the U.S. Postal Service, wired the Valium package with a monitoring and tracking device and conducted a controlled delivery to Rupani’s office. When officers received a radio transmission signal that the package had been opened, they entered the business and placed Rupani under arrest.

• Rupani told investigators he received the packages from a friend who lives in Karachi, Pakistan, and that he was told the pills were vitamins and weight loss drugs. Forensic tests of the seized pills show they contain the active ingredient in Valium, but they were manufactured by a criminal enterprise in China. The estimated street value of the drugs is $200,000.

• Rupani admitted he forwarded the packages sent by his co-conspirator to addresses in Texas and California on a regular basis, using his company’s UPS account. After a search of Rupani’s business, officers also recovered nine plastic bags containing an estimated 20,000 light green triangular pills, suspected counterfeit Xanax, and a box of diet pills.

Kudos to the FDA and CBP for the interception of this particular shipment but it begs the question as to the extent of the greater issue of these types of dangerous fakes within the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Certainly this particular bust must be but a tiny fraction of a much larger pipeline of counterfeit drugs that are introduced into the United States each day.

This type of crime is proliferating at an epic pace given the high profits and extremely low risk of getting caught or doing time. In this particular instance because the fakes were of a controlled substance, the suspect may be in for a significant penalty, however those that fake prescription drugs like Viagra have fewer penalties.

Members of the legitimate pharmaceutical supply chain must take proactive measures from these types of deadly fake products ending up in their inventories.

To read the entire Sun-Times Media story, visit: http://napervillesun.suntimes.com/news/crime/2828874-418/rupani-pills-valium-business-office.html

To learn more about anti-counterfeiting technologies for the pharmaceutical supply chain, visit: http://www.xstreamsystems.net/

Fake Drugs Mean Prison for St. Louis County Man

Man to be sentenced for trafficking in bogus erectile dysfunction drugs that were purchased on-line.

Robert Patrick in the St. Louis Post Dispatch reports about a St. Louis County man who has pleaded guilty to federal charges and admitted to selling thousands of counterfeit erectile dysfunction pills over the last several years.

According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch story:

• Mark Hughes, 47, ordered counterfeit versions of the drugs Viagra and Cialis online from China and India, and sold them either in an illegal and unlicensed pharmacy or via word of mouth, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Bodenhausen said in court.

• Hughes' last shipment, of 1,000 pills, was intercepted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in 2009 and delivered by investigators. Hughes house was then searched and he admitted buying roughly 11,000 pills. He sold them for $5 each, roughly one-third of the wholesale price, Bodenhausen said.

• Bodenhausen said that the pills either did not contain the correct drug or contained a less potent dose of the drug.

• In court, Hughes pleaded guilty to trafficking in counterfeit goods and misbranding a drug, and could face at least two years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines when sentenced in January, depending on a number of factors.

This is an excellent cautionary tale regarding those who set out to scam people by buying bogus goods online.

Mr. Hughes is fortunate that the bogus drugs that he sold did not adversely effect the health or kill someone or he would be facing a far more serious consequences.

Bogus drugs are becoming one of the more significant health care issues of the 21st century. 11,000 doses of a potentially lethal, fraudulent or adulterated drug could poison and create a huge health care disaster within a communities population.

Kudos to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for intercepting these bogus medications.

To read the entire story, visit: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/article_0ac42318-dad5-11df-a1ce-0017a4a78c22.html

To learn about pharmaceutical anti-counterfeit solutions, visit: http://www.xstreamsystems.net/.

Yahoo Finance: Top 5 Counterfeits that Endanger Consumers

Yahoo Finance airs a video on the top five most dangerous counterfeits and explains the ever growing global counterfeiting industry which now is valued at over $600 Billion annually.





Counterfeit Prescription Drugs were listed as number one on the list of the top five counterfeits that are of most risk to consumers.

US Customs and Border Patrol reports that seizure of counterfeit pharmaceuticals totaled $11 Million in 2009. The 2010 number is anticipated to easily exceed that value.

Secure Pharma Chain believes that it is important that consumers understand the danger that counterfeit drugs pose to their health. Fraudulent, adulterated, substandard and counterfeit medications are one of the most significant and dangerous health care issues of the 21st century. This video is a great way to share that message.

To learn more about pharmaceutical anti-counterfeiting technologies and solutions, visit: http://www.xstreamsystems.net/

Customs Agents Seize $21M in Counterfeit Items at Cincinnati Airport

Operation Safe Summer with agents from Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations discovered a variety of counterfeit items including counterfeit drugs.

As reported by Dan Horn and posted on-line at Cincinnati.com on September 28th, the seizures are part of a nationwide campaign by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to crack down on imports of knock-off products, which cost American companies and consumers hundreds of millions of dollars a year:

• Most of the counterfeit items came from China and all were seized between Sept. 7 and Sept. 17 as they passed through DHL's hub at the airport.

• "Pretty much anything that can be counterfeited, we came across," said Brian Bell, spokesman for Customs and Border Protection. "They were very good. The Chinese have perfected the art of duplicating our products."

• U.S. officials have said for years that the theft of intellectual property through counterfeit goods poses a major threat to the U.S. economy and to consumers, who could spend thousands of dollars for lower quality products or suffer injury because of defective parts or dangerous medicine.

• Federal agents seized almost 15,000 counterfeit shipments valued at more than $260 million nationwide last year, with China accounting for 79 percent of the illegal imports.

• The value of seizures dropped for the first time in 2009 - down from $272 million in 2008 - but federal officials say that may be because the global economic downturn reduced all imports by 25 percent. Until last year, intellectual property seizures increased steadily from about $93 million in 2005.

• He said counterfeiters are savvy, fast and getting better at mastering the technology needed to produce believable fakes. When the iPad came out earlier this year, Bell said, border protection officers began seizing knock-off versions within weeks. "The importation of counterfeit merchandise really damages the U.S. economy," he said.

• He said the DHL hub at the airport was targeted because so many goods pass through each day, not because the problem is worse here. He said DHL cooperated with federal officials and, as the shipping company, was not responsible for verifying the authenticity of the products it was paid to fly overseas.

• Criminal charges against the manufacturers of the counterfeit goods are unlikely because they are based overseas.

The fact that counterfeit products and dangerous fake drugs are becoming a semi-mainstream global export from emerging economies is very troubling and a significant threat.

This type of law enforcement confiscation, which will not likely lead to many if any criminal charges is becoming all too much the norm and represents a small fraction of the amount that comes into this country on a daily basis.

Industry leaders and consumers around the globe need to insist on regulatory/enforcement measures and need to take proactive steps to protect themselves from harmful goods that threaten populations.

To read the Mr. Horn’s article, visit: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100928/NEWS010703/309280053/Fake-items-seized-at-CVG.

To learn more about pharmaceutical anti-counterfeiting technologies, visit: http://www.xstreamsystems.net/.