Kansas man gets 15 years in jail for pharmaceutical diversion

One of the men behind a multimillion-dollar racket in which pharmaceutical waste from a Sanofi-Aventis manufacturing facility in the USA was diverted to make narcotics was sentenced to 15 years in prison last week.

Garland Duane Hankins of Oak Grove, who worked for an environmental waste disposal company contracted by Sanofi-Aventis, was one of a group of men who pleaded guilty in January to protracted theft of a pharmaceutical grade of pseudoephedrine powder that was unsuitable for use in finished products.

Hankins worked for the waste disposal company for 12 years and was the primary contractor responsible for taking the waste powder from the manufacturing plant in Kansas City, Missouri.

The material was sold on to other criminals involved in the synthesis of methamphetamine or 'crystal meth', and local authorities estimate the diverted material could have been used to manufacture more than $40m-worth of the drug.

Hankins and others admitted that they sold the powder for $3,000-$10,000 per pound, bringing in an estimated $7m. The illegal activity was only uncovered in February 2007, when the thieves decided to step up from the drip-feed of pseudoephedrine supply and hatched a plot to steal the ingredient in bulk.

Prosecutors have also charged James Robert Everson of Kansas City in that robbery, in which a 50-kilo drum was removed from the Sanofi-Aventis site. Everson has also pleaded guilty, but has not been sentenced.

Hankins worked for the environmental service company for 12 years and was the primary contractor responsible for taking the waste powder from the manufacturing plant.

In 2004, the US Drug Enforcement Administration tightened up the requirements for companies making, distributing, importing or exporting pseudoephedrine, ephedrine and propanolamine with measures designed to prevent the theft and diversion of the substances.

Last year, Sanofi-Aventis said it had decided to close down the Kansas City facility after failing to find a buyer for the plant, which employed 370 workers. It is due to cease operations completely in the middle of 2012.


Related articles:

Sanofi contractors use stolen API waste to make illegal drugs