AGENTS SHUT DOWN PHARMACY

DAVIE -- Federal agents shut down part of a Davie pharmacy and seized boxes
of pain medications Friday, accusing the company of illegally peddling
millions of powerful diet and sleeping pills over the Internet.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration raided C&H Wholesale Inc. and its
Internet outlet, Lifeline Pharmacy, after an investigation that lasted at
least six months, DEA documents show. Both companies are owned by Frank and
Amada Hernandez.

C&H sold at least 5.6 million doses of controlled-substance pills to
Internet pharmacies including Lifeline since May 2002, and Lifeline sold 2.9
million to online customers in less than three months this year, the DEA
said in a complaint.

State pharmacy standards require doctors to see patients before writing a
prescription. But Lifeline mailed bottles of pills to patients who had
merely filled out an online form, including an undercover agent who posed as
a slender teenage girl, the DEA said. Doctors supposedly signed off on the
prescriptions, but none ever saw the patients.

"Lifeline is dispensing prescriptions for controlled substances based on
Internet orders that do not involve any personal contact," the DEA complaint
said. "The owners, pharmacists and employees all have direct knowledge there
is no legitimate physician/patient relationship."

C&H officials could not be reached for comment. The company issued a
statement saying the operation exceeds the standards that its lawyers and
clinical leaders consider proper, and saying the government has not been
clear about the rules for online drug dispensing.

The DEA complaint is not a criminal charge; it is a regulatory action. The
agency suspended the company's federal license to deal in controlled
substances, shut down that aspect of its operation and moved to revoke the
license. The company has 30 days to appeal.

C&H opened in 1999 and became a high-volume wholesaler of the sleeping pill
Ambien and diet pills including amphetamines and phentermine, the DEA said.
Its main buyers were Internet pharmacies.

Lifeline opened in February and was filling 1,000 prescriptions a day from
50 online pharmacies related to the company, the DEA said. Agents posed as
Internet buyers and obtained drugs easily within days.

Bob LaMendola is a reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a Tribune
Publishing newspaper.