Feds shutter alleged Internet drug ring

Federal agents have shut down an Internet pharmacy operation and arrested four people who allegedly sold millions of dollars of illegally prescribed drugs to customers across the nation.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents are still seeking four doctors from Puerto Rico who allegedly wrote the prescriptions based on Internet health questionnaires, DEA spokeswoman Erin Mulvey said Wednesday. The agency also continues to investigate other websites that might be associated with drug operation, she said.

Antonio Quinones, 46, and three associates were arrested Dec. 21 in the Miami area and charged with drug dealing, money laundering and tax fraud, according to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court in New York.

Quinones — who was arrested at his Miami Beach penthouse — and his associates ran 10 websites, Mulvey said. Customers could answer a few questions about their health and order drugs, including Vicodin, prescription diet pills and amphetamines, she said.

The doctors being sought by authorities reviewed the forms and ordered the prescriptions, Mulvey said. The sites, in operation for at least three years, did about $50,000 a day in business, she said. Such prescriptions violate laws that require a physician to meet with a patient to determine whether there is a legitimate medical need before prescribing a controlled drug.

A message left at Quinones’ Miami Beach home was not returned. Agents seized $817,000 from him, along with a 54-foot boat, a Ferrari and two guns. Prosecutors are seeking $42.6 million they say was laundered through various bank accounts, the indictment says.

“They had customers all over the United States, millions of orders,” Mulvey said.

The indictment alleges Quinones and his associates operated businesses under several names, including The Doctor’s Online, Inc., Health Rx Marketing and Brothers Pharmacy, Inc. Agents earlier closed two pharmacies in Georgia and one in Maryland that allegedly supplied the ring, Mulvey said.

source:www.isnaini.web.id