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A federal grand jury returned an indictment this morning charging 18 people with distributing drugs through Internet pharmacies. Most of them, including a doctor, are from Utah.
One of the Web sites under investigation is Lighthousemeds.com, which also operated under the name "Federalmeds." The drug ring has been shut down, but investigators say in five years, those involved sold 11 million pills.
"The Internet, which is such a source of good in this world, has unfortunately been used for a source of bad," said Salt Lake FBI Special Agent in Charge Tim Furhman.
Investigators say you didn't need a prescription to get drugs from Web sites like Lighthousemeds.com, but you didn't always get what you paid for either. Prescriptions bought by undercover agents were less potent or not as billed.
"The Web sites are intended to confuse. They are intended to mask and imply legitimacy," U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman said.
A complaint filed this summer against one of the suspects alleges that the Web site's owner, Greg Crosby, sold the prescription diet pill Phentermine online to thousands of customers.
The complaint says Crosby named two other men as his partners: Noah Sifuentes and James Brinton, a doctor from Utah County. Both are also charged.
Crosby told federal agents the drugs were smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico. Four Mexican nationals, including Edgar Flores-Cuevas, are also named in the indictment.
Tolman says many other drugs like Ritalin, Xanax and Valium were also illegally distributed all over the world through the rogue Web sites. "When you talk about 11 million pills over a five-year duration of time, you can quickly do the math," he said.
Tolman says this is part of an effort to target prescription drug abuse, which has become a widespread problem. "We are going to use every tool we have to cut off the supply of prescription drugs obtained through illegal, and often unsafe, means," he said.
We talked to Dr. Brinton on the phone this afternoon. He says he only supported advertising Phentermine on the Web site and would help with quality control.
The suspects are facing serious charges that include importing controlled substances, distribution and money laundering. To read the indictment and see complete list of those indicted, click on the related links to the right of the story.
E-mail: syi@ksl.com
E-mail: tcallan@ksl.com
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