A couple in New Hampshire has been indicted on charges that they conspired to distribute misbranded prescription drugs, including controlled substances, from India.
John and Plabplueng Hayes were each charged with one felony count of conspiracy to introduce misbranded drugs into interstate commerce and one felony count of conspiracy to use a communications facility, the United States mail, to facilitate a drug trafficking offense.
According to the indictment, the defendants were part of a multi-national drug distribution operation and allegedly conspired with each other, and with co-conspirators in India and North Carolina, to receive hundreds of thousands of prescription drugs, including controlled substances, from India and other foreign locations.
The defendants received these drugs at US Post Office boxes throughout New Hampshire and Massachusetts, stored the drugs at their residence and reshipped them in smaller parcels to individual customers throughout the United States based on instructions from the co-conspirator located in India.
"Consumers rely on the Food and Drug Administration to ensure that their medications are safe and effective. When misbranded drugs are introduced into the US marketplace, the potential danger to the public's health is great," Special Agent in Charge FDA Office of Criminal Investigations' New York Field Office Jeffrey Ebersole said.
