Cocaine and ecstasy aren’t the only drugs that foreign nationals are trying to smuggle into the US. This past month, two Ukrainian citizens named Maksym Nienadov and Volodymyr Nikolaienko were tried in a Houston, TX federal court and found guilty for trafficking counterfeit cancer and hepatitis medications. They have been sentenced to 71 months and 33 months respectively in federal prison and are likely to be deported once their terms have been completed.
Following an investigation by the FDA-OCI and HSI, the two representatives for Ukrainian company Healthy Nation were arrested in 2019 on US soil after flying in to make a deal for future illegal shipments of the drugs.
According to a press release by the Department of Justice, “the defendants sought to profit off the illnesses of others, selling false hope – including fake drugs with no active ingredient – and risking the health of vulnerable patients,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas L. McQuaid.
The sale of misbranded or illegal prescription drugs in the US is a far more profuse form of drug smuggling than many people realize and are a major factor in the opioid crisis that the country is facing. In fact, a 2019 survey by the DEA found that “Controlled Prescription Drugs (CPDs) are the second most commonly abused illicit substance after marijuana with nearly 18.1 million persons aged 12 years or older who reported abusing CPDs in the past year”.
To protect patients and avoid being embroiled in similar trafficking cases, pharmaceutical companies, brokers and independent contractors must actively engage with a legal team to ensure the prescription drugs have been FDA approved and are licensed to sell in the US. To connect with the team at Padula Law that has years of experience working with the DOJ and other federal agencies, please contact (305) 455-5206.
