Lester Holt of NBC News Finds Fentanyl for Sale Online After 5-Minute Search

Google search conducted on August 29, 2017 at 11:51am PST In a television report for NBC Nightly News, Lester Holt and his investigative team were able to find Chinese-made, bulk fentanyl powder for sale on the Internet after searching for “buy fentanyl” online. When his crew sent an enquiry email to one of the listed…

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Women in 2 States Indicted in Separate Clandestine Silicone Injection Scams

Update:  In May 2017, Deanna Roberts pleaded guilty to illegally injecting persons with liquid silicone and for introducing liquid silicone that was obtained by fraud into interstate commerce. Roberts, who continued to administer industrial grade silicone injections even after she knew that one her patients had died and others had been hospitalized, was sentenced to…

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The Drug Counterfeiters Next Door: Fentanyl-laced Oxycodone Pills Distributed from Utah Suburb

A Utah man and five friends are facing federal drug trafficking, drug counterfeiting, mail and wire-fraud charges for allegedly distributing hundreds of thousands of counterfeit prescription medications laced with fentanyl, a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release reports. The DOJ alleges that Aaron Michael Shamo and his co-conspirators turned his suburban Cottonwood Heights home into…

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Counterfeit Drugs Made With Fentanyl Part of Urgent Public Health Threat

  Richard Baum, acting director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, warned the House Energy and Commerce Committee that “illicit fentanyl is an urgent public health threat,” in a letter dated Wednesday, March 29, reports the Wall Street Journal. Baum’s letter cites the tripling of the death rate due to fentanyl…

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California Drug Counterfeiter Sentenced to 10 Years in Jail

David Beckford was one of 5 California residents charged in a scheme to produce and sell fake Xanax from bulk medication imported from China. A Northern California Federal Court has sentenced Oakland resident David Beckford to ten years in prison after his guilty plea on counterfeit drug, money laundering, and weapons charges, The Department of…

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Fake Xanax Manufacturer Sentenced to Prison in California Case

28 year old Oakland resident David Beckford has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in producing and selling counterfeit Xanax pills. Beckford and his co-conspirators imported bulk medication and pill presses from China and other countries that they then turned into real-looking Xanax pills. Authorities found that he intended to put…

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Prince Died As Result of Taking Fake Hydrocodone Pills that Contained Fentanyl

When Prince Rogers Nelson died in April, it was reported that he died of an apparent overdose of opiates, which he had used to combat chronic hip pain. Now a new report from Minneapolis indicates he died as a result of taking counterfeit hydrocodone containing deadly fentanyl. Prince Rogers Nelson, an American musician and performer,…

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Florida Businessman Sentenced in Counterfeit Drug Distribution Case

A Tampa Federal court has sentenced Robert Lohr to 21 months in federal prison for conspiracy to smuggle misbranded and counterfeit drugs into the United States. He was also required to forfeit over $900,000 in profits. He had pleaded guilty in January. Lohr operated a business called “Canadian American Drug Club” or “American Drug Club…

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Louisiana Woman Convicted of Selling Chinese-made “Natural” Supplements Containing Sibutramine

Darlene Krueger and her co-conspirators sold Chinese-made, “all-natural” weight loss supplements via website and mail order sales. Operating out of Louisiana and Florida, Krueger repackaged and sold bulk illicit medications containing the banned weight-loss drug sibutramine, which she then passed off as herbal supplements to her unsuspecting customers. On March 23, 2016, The Food and…

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