Online Pharmacy Ring Shut Down In Federal Indictment

Jenny Albano

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According to a federal indictment unsealed on August 2, 2007, 18 members of an online pharmacy syndicate named 'AffPower' are alleged to have sold between the years 2004 and 2006 over 126 million dollars worth of prescription drugs to various consumers over the internet without a valid prescription.

According to a statement prepared by special agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office Lorraine Concha,

"people were in essence self-prescribing medications - they would go in as a customer online, select the dosage they were looking for, and the doctors would take all of five minutes to review the [patient's history] questionnaire."

Self-prescribing of medication is inadvisable and can have extremely destructive effects on consumers when taken to extremes.

The indictment names several physicians, pharmacists, credit card processors, and affiliate online pharmacy web sites working with AffPower for a cut of profits from the sales of drug sales. This is the first instance in which RICO statutes have been employed against online pharmacies.