Apr 6, 2008 6:03 pm US/Mountain
International Drug Ring Suspect Jailed In Denver
DENVER (CBS4) ―
They were in search of a deal on prescription drugs, but investigators say the pills some Colorado residents received could have been deadly.
Residents across the Front Range were allegedly sent bogus drugs and the man believed to be at the center of that international counterfeit drug ring is now in jail in Colorado.
Several of the alleged victims live in Denver, Loveland and Boulder. All of them brought the drugs over the Internet.
Georgios Xydeas, from Greece, left Athens to go to Panama on business. He was denied entry to Panama and was diverted to New York where he was arrested and flown to Denver. He was then charged in a major counterfeit drug case extending from Colorado to Greece to China.
The Internet is loaded with fraud and there are plenty of Web sites offering cheap pills for sale without prescriptions. In this case, the pills were shipped from Greece. In some cases, people in Colorado ordered Ambien, a sleeping pill. They actually received haloperidol, an anti psychotic drug.
"It can make people violent, can give them seizures, and we know where this has happened, people have ended up in the hospital," U.S. Attorney Troy Eid said.
The orders would often arrive in unmarked plastic bags. The company advertised they were government certified, met or exceeded Food and Drug Administration standards and that U.S. licensed doctors supervised the dispensary. But investigators from Immigration and Customs Enforcement say that wasn't the case.
"If you are ordering something over the Internet, you don't know the origin of it, you don't know what that compound make up might be," Michael Masto with Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. "You're putting your health at great risk."
Some ordered Cialis for sexual dysfunction, but got counterfeits instead. The indictment against Xydeas claims when one recipient complained to his company they were told, "Nothing is wrong, unmarked pills can be this way."
The drugs are believed to have originated in mainland China, where Eid sent an investigator.
"There ended up being prosecutions in China too, of Chinese nationals who were part of the source of the supply," Eid said.
The investigation began after the FDA issued a consumer warning last year about drugs shipped from Greece.
If he's convicted, Xydeas faces up to 20 years in prison and $2 million in fines.
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