December 2, 2024: Black market HIV drug trafficking costs criminal $31 million in restitution
Major Stories
A California man must pay millions in restitution for selling fake HIV meds. Virginia will not pursue Canadian drug importation right now.
A federal judge in San Francisco ordered Lorik Papyan to pay Gilead Sciences $31 million in restitution as part of a criminal conviction for selling black market HIV medication into the legitimate U.S. supply chain. Papyan and three co-conspirators collected large quantities of diverted HIV medication from patients in the Los Angeles area and used a company called Mainspring Distribution to resell it with forged pedigrees to retail pharmacies and wholesalers.
Want to know more? Visit our page tracking the case.
Papyan was one of hundreds of defendants in Gilead Sciences’ 2021 lawsuit alleging that a network of drug sellers and distributors had sold 85,000 counterfeit bottles of its HIV treatments to U.S. pharmacies.
A November 2024 report submitted to the Virginia legislature by the state’s Secretary of Health and Human Resources concluded that Virginia should not pursue a state drug importation program “until other states have proven that drugs can be successfully imported from Canada.”
How does the FDA protect Americans from dangerous medicine?
When investigators with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) toured a drug manufacturing company last March, the company limited their inspection, refusing access to records and manufacturing areas and forbidding them from taking photographs of dirty machines that needed repair.
What were the consequences? FDA put the company’s products on an import alert: until an inspection is completed and any violations are resolved authorities can detain them at the border.
Domestic News
A California man pleaded guilty to manufacturing and selling counterfeit prescription pills. A Massachusetts pill trafficker receives a nine-year sentence.
Jamar Deontae Barnes of Stockton, California pleaded guilty to drug charges related to his role in a ring that manufactured counterfeit prescription pills made with heroin, fentanyl and other synthetic opioids and methamphetamine pills disguised as MDMA between September 2015 and May 2019. Barnes is scheduled to be sentenced along with his twin brother Jamaine and three other defendants in March 2025. He is the tenth defendant to plead guilty in this case.
Another man, Angel Joel Diaz, received a nine-year prison sentence in Massachusetts federal court for distributing tens of thousands of pills containing fentanyl and methamphetamine. A February 2023 search of Diaz’s home in Haverhill yielded thousands of pills, fentanyl and methadone, two pill presses and other drug paraphernalia.
FDA warned a company that this product was an unapproved drug on November 15, 2024.
The FDA warned a Florida company that its combination benzocaine, lidocaine and tetracaine numbing cream was an unapproved drug being sold in violation of the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act. This letter follows a March 2024 consumer warning that high-concentration topical analgesics may cause irregular heartbeat, seizures and breathing difficulties.
Police officers seized kilogram quantities of illicit drugs and a pill press from a home in Detroit, Michigan.
A fentanyl prosecution moves forward
The U.S. District Court in Los Angeles indicted a San Bernardino woman for allegedly selling the fentanyl-spiked cocaine that killed Jessica Filson and Nicholas Castillo in January 2020. A second defendant, Jason Saha, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl in August 2024.
Jessica’s father Steve Filson has been a dedicated advocate for fentanyl education since his daughter’s death.
Visit Victims of Illicit Drugs (VOID) to learn more.
International News
Counterfeit medicine reported in India, Cameroon and Nigeria.
The Drugs Control Administration in Telangana, India seized counterfeit antibiotics worth $157,000 during a raid on a pharmaceutical facility alleged to be exporting drugs manufactured by other firms to Russia under false labels.
Cameroon’s Minister of Public Health ordered a halt of sales and the quarantine of counterfeit Litacold, an over-the-counter cold treatment. The Ministry has also warned about fake versions of Cyteal Foaming Solution and Maloxine, which treats malaria.
Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) issued an alert about a specific batch of Combiart Dispersible, an antimalarial drug, which has been found to be counterfeit.
NAFDAC shared this image of the counterfeit malaria drug.