Ukrainian Pair Pleads Guilty to Importing and Selling Fake Cancer and Hepatitis C Drugs

A pair of men from Ukraine admitted in federal court that they conspired to smuggle and distribute counterfeit cancer and hepatitis C drugs into the United States. Maksym Nienadov, the owner of the Ukrainian-based company Healthy Nation, and his co-conspirator and employee – Volodymyr Nikolaienko – pleaded guilty in federal court in Houston, Texas to conspiracy, trafficking in counterfeit drugs and smuggling goods into the country.

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A Texas Athlete’s Life Cut Short by Trust

Blain Padgett earned a full athletic scholarship and a defensive end position with the Rice University Owls in 2015 through persistence, vision and sheer hard work, but his dream of playing college football was cut short on March 2, 2018, when he was found dead in his apartment. Investigation showed that Blain’s cause of death was fentanyl poisoning: the hydrocodone pill he’d taken from a friend for his shoulder pain turned out to be a counterfeit laced with carfentanil.

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Football Player In Texas Killed By Counterfeit Pills Made With Carfentanil

A former Rice University football player has been charged with causing the death of a 21-year-old student after selling the young man counterfeit hydrocodone pills made with carfentanil. Carfentanil is one of fentanyl’s many analogues. A lethal dose is so small it cannot be seen with the human eye…

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