US Attorney Charges 18 Defendants in Major Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals Sting

The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, announced the unsealing of charges against 18 defendants.

The Charges

The defendants are charged with their involvement in a scheme to manufacture, advertise, sell, and ship millions of deadly counterfeit pills disguised as legitimate pharmaceuticals. The pills were purchased by tens of thousands of victims from fake online pharmacies run by Francisco Alberto Lopez Reyes and his 17 codefendants. At least 9 people died from ingesting the counterfeit pills.

The charges allege that, over the past 2.5 years, “a network of individuals located in the US, the Dominican Republic, India, and elsewhere have exploited Americans’ reliance on online pharmacies by advertising, selling, manufacturing, and shipping through the mail millions of unregulated pills.” According to the government, instead of receiving inexpensive prescription medications, buyers were sent counterfeit pills containing fentanyl, para-fluorofentanyl, and methamphetamine. The pills were shaped, dyed and stamped to look like the legitimate prescription medication, but were instead manufactured in pill mills located residential basements in Manhattan and the Bronx, New York.

Between August 2023 and June 2024, at least 9 victims—each of whom purchased the counterfeit pills from the defendants—died of narcotics poisoning. One victim, a 45-year-old veteran who served 12 years in the US Army National Guard, believed she was purchasing 30-milligram oxycodone pills from the defendant’s online pharmacy. Instead, she received pills made of fentanyl and para-fluorofentanyl. The victim conducted research to attempt to ensure the pills were genuine, but because the pills were made to look real, she was unable to identify them as counterfeit. She died 5 days after receiving the pills from acute fentanyl intoxication.

“The 18 defendants in this case operated a sophisticated network of fake online pharmacies and pill mills in India, the Dominican Republic, and the United States that preyed on Americans who believed they were purchasing legitimate medications from legitimate pharmacies,” said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram in a press release. “The defendants exploited the online pharmacy market to sell counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl and methamphetamine to unsuspecting victims. These individuals sold millions of dangerous fake pills to victims in every US state and the District of Columbia. The defendants did this to make money by driving addiction with deadly, highly-addictive fentanyl. The DEA is relentlessly focused on saving lives by finding these criminal networks and shutting them down.”

Reference:

U.S. Attorney announces charges against 18 defendants in scheme to manufacture and distribute millions of deadly counterfeit pharmaceuticals through fake online pharmacies. Press release. US Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York. Published September 30, 2024. Accessed December 27, 2024. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/us-attorney-announces-charges-against-18-defendants-scheme-manufacture-and-distribute