16 TIED TO WEB PHARMACY SCAM

Wholesalers Duped, Consumers Gouged For $200 Million, DEA Says

Federal agents arrested 16 people Wednesday in North Texas and
Florida in connection with an Arlington-based Internet pharmacy scam
that the government alleges has reaped more than $200 million in
illegal profits.

Described as the largest investigation of its kind in the country, it
is the culmination of a 2 1/2-year investigation known as "CyberX,"
which centers on Rakesh Jyoti Saran, federal officials said Wednesday.

Mr. Saran, 43, of Arlington is described as the ringleader of a scam
that officials said included duping prescription drug wholesalers
into selling him and his cohorts painkillers, diet pills,
anti-anxiety drugs and drugs containing codeine, among others, at
deep discounts reserved for legitimate businesses selling to
hospitals and other institutions.

The ring would then, according to prosecutors, peddle the drugs to
individuals at up to four times the retail price through a network of
23 illegal Internet pharmacies. Warehouses for the drugs were within
an approximate 15-mile radius of Arlington, officials said.

Federal officials allege that the enterprise generated about $50,000
a day in profits. Agents have identified millions in assets to seize,
including 11 vehicles and seven properties. That includes Mr. Saran's
huge house under construction in Arlington, plus others in Mansfield,
Miami and Boca Raton, Fla.

"These people are a new kind of drug kingpin," said Karen Tandy,
administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration who was in
Dallas on Wednesday to announce the arrests.

The operation "puts out of business cyber criminals who were selling
powerful narcotics without legitimate prescriptions to anyone with a
computer and cash," she said.

"These high-tech drug dealers were fueling addictions by selling the
very drugs intended to prevent and treat ailments - not inflict them.
Just as important, this operation makes more Americans aware that
buying prescription drugs from these rogue Web sites is illegal and dangerous."

Ms. Tandy estimated that about 4,600 Internet pharmacies are offering
illegal prescriptions online.

Federal officials said that none of the doctors who signed off on
prescriptions without seeing the drug customer had been implicated in
the criminal case yet, but hinted that could change and that some
could face license suspensions. It was also unclear whether people
who bought these drugs would be charged.

"The investigation is ongoing," said Richard Roper, U.S. attorney for
the Northern District of Texas, whose office is prosecuting the CyberX cases.

Officials said the criminals were so brazen that they had a shipment
of illegal prescriptions delivered to the Dallas DEA headquarters.
The initials of the person "buying" the drugs: D.E.A.

In March, a Dallas federal judge sentenced Clayton Fuchs to 20 years
in prison for leading a ring of doctors and pharmacists illegally
selling prescription drugs over the Internet.