Two Florida men pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges for operating an Internet pharmacy that banked more than $1 million selling phony Viagra and other bogus drugs.<\/P><\/p>\n
In court documents, authorities said the rogue pharmacy sold a wide variety of unapproved medicines, sometimes in deadly combinations that a legitimate pharmacy would have warned against.<\/P><\/p>\n
The case is part of a government crackdown on illegal online pharmacies, which have spawned countless Web sites and flooded e-mail boxes with unsolicited messages.<\/P><\/p>\n
Charles Naron, of Lake Worth, and Stephen Lewis, of Boyton Beach, acknowledged their pharmacy brought in more than $1 million selling drugs that they falsely told buyers came from reputable Mexican pharmacies and were legal to import, prosecutors said Friday.<\/P><\/p>\n
The illegal pharmacy worked with a Bahamas warehouse that shipped the drugs using an express service, according to court documents.<\/P><\/p>\n
The Food and Drug Administration has warned such purchases could prove dangerous or worthless. It’s illegal to sell prescription drugs without a prescription,<\/P><\/p>\n
Tests of pills seized in this investigation found that some had too much of the active ingredient in Viagra.<\/P><\/p>\n
Lewis’s daughter, Pamela, who worked in the Internet business, also on Friday pleaded guilty to conspiracy and criminal forfeiture.<\/P><\/p>\n
Naron is scheduled to be sentenced April 18 in U.S. District Court in downtown San Diego, and the Lewises on May 16.<\/P><\/p>\n
The charges carry a maximum 20-year sentence.<\/P><\/p>\n
According to court documents, Naron and Lewis started their Web pharmacy several years ago and eventually hooked up with Mark Kolowich, a San Diego man who was sentenced to four years in prison a week ago.<\/P><\/p>\n
Kolowich’s illegal operation sold more than $6 million worth of what he called “generic” Viagra and other drugs in 2003, prosecutors said.<\/P><\/p>\n
Pfizer Inc. holds the patents for Viagra in the United States, and there is no approved generic version of the drug.<\/P><\/p>\n
AP<\/B><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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