US man jailed, ordered to pay drugmakers for counterfeiting

A Puerto Rican man has been jailed for two years for his role in distributing large quantities of Chinese-made counterfeit medicines across the US.

Francis Ortiz Gonzalez (pictured) has also been ordered to pay $324,530 in restitution to the pharmaceutical companies damaged by the criminal activity, which include Pfizer and Eli Lilly.

He was convicted last year following a six-day trial on one count of conspiracy and seven counts of trafficking in counterfeit pharmaceuticals. His wife, Ideliz Aleman-Valentin, was acquitted of the charges, while the alleged ringleader of the group - Bo Jiang - remains at large.

In September 2009, federal agents found more than 100,000 pills at Ortiz Gonzalez's residence in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which mimicked drugs such as Pfizer's Lipitor (atorvastatin) and Viagra (sildenafil) and Lilly's Cialis (tadalafil).  If authentic the drugs would have been worth more than $1m.

Investigators developed evidence that Ortiz Gonzalez obtained the counterfeit pills from China and had shipped more than 140,000 of them to individuals throughout the US.

In a related case, a North Hollywood man called Edward Alarcon was found guilty on January 11 of federal charges involving the trafficking of counterfeit pharmaceuticals. He was convicted of two counts of trafficking in counterfeit versions of Purdue Pharma's OxyContin (hydrocodone) and Cialis, and acquitted on two other counts.

The evidence presented during a three-day jury trial showed that Alarcon had purchased the counterfeit OxyContin from Bo Jiang.

In November 2009, federal agents found 237 counterfeit OxyContin pills and around 1,500 counterfeit Cialis pills in Alarcon's car and house, as well as hundreds of other counterfeit pills, including Viagra and Levitra.

Only a month before the federal search, Alarcon had been convicted in state court on counterfeit drug charges for selling counterfeit Cialis to an undercover Los Angeles Police Department officer in 2008.

Alarcon is scheduled to be sentenced on April 4 and faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.