EX-EMPLOYEE TELLS HOW FIRM SOLD DRUGS

United Care Pharmacy Closed, Faces Charges

Business was booming when Christy Luce went to work for United Care
Pharmacy in October 2005.

Internet orders for prescription medicines, including the appetite
suppressant phentermine, were being shipped by the thousands each week
to customers across the country from the nondescript strip mall
warehouse off South 17th Street.

On an average day, Luce said, anywhere from 2,700 to 5,000 orders were
express mailed. She recalled one day when 8,000 orders went out.

All that commerce meant millions of dollars in profits for the owners
of the business, and they lived a lifestyle befitting their good
fortune, federal investigators said.

It all ended Jan. 11 when four people, including Wilmington residents
Andrew Thomas Russo and Denis Leborgne, were taken into custody and
charges of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and money
laundering were filed. Russo, Leborgne and the other two defendants,
David John of Nashville, Tenn., and pharmacist John F. Tuite of Myrtle
Beach, S.C., made their first court appearances last week and are free
on bail pending second appearances.

Luce kept her ears and eyes open as she filled pill containers and
processed orders. She didn't remain silent, which led to her firing in
February 2006, the Pender County woman said in an interview this week.

Luce, who produced paycheck stubs to prove her previous employment
with UCP, said she quickly had suspicions about the company.

"They started watching me because I was asking questions," she said.
"I was told I was a threat to the company."

United Care Pharmacy and a sister business, Kwik Fill in Fayetteville,
also were under the scrutiny of the DEA. The online pharmacy was shut
down March 8, 2006, when its DEA registration was surrendered
following the execution of a summary suspension order by the N.C.
Board of Pharmacy.

In November a sealed indictment in the U.S. District Court's Northern
District of California was handed down naming Russo, 48, of Chimney
Lane, as former chief operating officer; Leborgne, 42, of McQuillan
Drive, also known as "Frenchy," as former chief technical officer, and
two other defendants.

All the men were affiliated with UCP, a "rogue Internet pharmacy,"
according to the DEA.

Russo did not return a telephone call to his home Friday. Leborgne
could not be reached for comment.

California Probe

The DEA's San Jose, Calif., office spearheaded the investigation after
a woman in that city reported her husband was receiving phentermine in
the mail.

"California was where we used to ship a lot of the prescriptions to,"
said Luce, who was married in 2006 and whose last name is different
from the time she was employed at UCP.

Luce said she was told by her employers that UCP made $10 for each
prescription shipped. According to the federal indictment unsealed
last week, the company "used a pharmacy network on the Internet to
distribute and dispense controlled substances without requiring the
customers to receive a face-to-face meeting or consultation with a
physician before receiving their controlled substances."

UCP only required customers to fill out an online questionnaire "which
allegedly received little or no consideration by a physician before
being approved," according to the indictment.

Other drugs distributed by the company included the male erectile
dysfunction drug Viagra, the painkiller Vicodin, and anti-anxiety
drugs Xanax and diazepam.

'Cyber-Authorized'

"From what I know, when I was in there, there were no prescriptions
written by the doctors. They would get them off a Web site," Luce said.

Customers were "cyber-authorized" by doctors throughout the U.S. who
were paid from $5 to $10 per person, San Francisco-based DEA Special
Agent Casey McEnry said.

The indictment covers alleged activity at UCP between July 2005 and
March 2006.

Luce said that behind locked doors, various medications were fed
through large hoppers and then separated into smaller baskets. Printed
copies of each order would be placed on top and then processed by Luce
and others, she said.

Certain supervisory employees "were allowed to stamp the pharmacist's
name on the orders that were going out," Luce said.

As for 81-year-old pharmacist John Tuite, "I only saw him a few
times," said Luce, who worked full time at UCP for about four months.

Wilmington DEA Special Resident Agent in charge Emmett R. Highland
said the business was a cash cow for its owners, as is evidenced by
assets seized from the defendants, primarily Russo, Leborgne and John.

They include $2.2 million in cash along with a Lamborghini, a Porsche
SUV, a Maserati, a 2007 Cadillac Escalade and a 2006 Corvette Z06. Of
the 13 vehicles seized Jan. 11 by the DEA, nine were in Wilmington,
Highland said.

Other assets linked to UCP profits that were seized in Wilmington
include about $500,000 in cash and jewelry, Highland said.

Several Web Sites

Medications from UCP and Kwik Fill, which was also shut down in 2006,
were available on multiple Web sites.

Some of the money flowing into the businesses was funneled into a
European Union "shelf company" bank account on the island of Cyprus,
according to the indictment.

The indictment focuses on distribution of phentermine, which McEnry
said accounted for most of UCP's sales.

"It's a dangerous thing," Highland said. "They literally distributed
millions of dosage units."

Jay Campbell, executive director of the N.C. Board of Pharmacy,
described operations such as UCP as a "significant threat to the
public health and safety."

"The board is pleased to see that federal law enforcement is seeking
to hold United Care's operators criminally liable for their conduct."

Luce said she was unable to get unemployment benefits after being
fired because her employers claimed she wasn't keeping up with the
workload. She disputes that contention.

Meanwhile, the DEA investigation continues, Highland
said.

The four defendants eventually must appear in a California courtroom.
No court dates have been set.

"They have to ultimately come here and face charges," McEnry
said.

Luce said she has not discussed her employment at UCP with law
enforcement, but wanted to speak out because of her concern about
prescription medicines falling into the wrong hands.

"It could be a kid who had their parents' credit card. I'm a mother
myself," she said.