The US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania accuses a Costa Rican for allegedly marketing fake and illegal products for erectile dysfunction, including Viagra.
The suspect is named Navarro, 42, who is charged with five felonies. Among them, three counts of postal fraud, one for conspiracy to smuggle drugs for erectile dysfunction and the other for money laundering.
Navarro, arrested in Madrid, Spain, earlier this year, was extradited to the United States.
According to the accusation raised by the authorities, the subject would have used a website from Costa Rica to offer false medicines brought from India. These were then sent to US customers. To that end, the accused would have had the collaboration of two other people surnamed Cruz.
Apparently, the suspects cheated customers into believing that the products offered were approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Mark S. McCormack, head of the Office of the Office of Criminal Investigations at the FDA, said that buying prescription drugs through illegal websites may endanger consumers.
The law provides for a maximum sentence of 20 years of imprisonment for each of the crimes of postal fraud and money laundering, and five years of imprisonment for each conspiracy carried out to commit the crimes.
(…) as well as a fine of $250,000 for each offense, except for money laundering, which carries a potential fine of $500,000. Under the federal sentencing guidelines, the actual sentence imposed would be based on the seriousness of the offenses and previous criminal history, if any, of the defendant,”
announced the US attorney’s office, represented by Shardul Desai.