Francis Ortiz Gonzalez, Trafficking in Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals, California 2009

LOS ANGELES – A Puerto Rican man was sentenced to two years in federal prison for distributing large quantities of counterfeit, Chinese-made pharmaceuticals across the United States.

Fifty-six-year correction – actually 36, Francis Ortiz Gonzalez, was sentenced late this morning by United States District Judge George H. Wu, who also ordered the defendant to pay $324,530 in restitution to the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture brand name products such as Lipitor, Viagra, Xanax and Cialis.

In September 2009, federal agents executed a search warrant at Ortiz Gonzalez’s residence in Trujillo Alto, a suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Inside the home, investigators found more than 100,000 pills that resembled a variety of popular prescription medications made by companies such as Pfizer Inc. and Eli Lilly and Company.

Investigators developed evidence that Ortiz Gonzalez obtained the counterfeit pills from China and had shipped more than 140,000 of them to individuals throughout the United States. If the drugs had been authentic, the retail value of the pills shipped throughout the United States by Ortiz Gonzalez and possessed in his home would be more than $1 million.

After a six-day trial last summer, Ortiz Gonzalez was convicted on one count of conspiracy and seven counts of trafficking in counterfeit pharmaceuticals. Ortiz Gonzalez was acquitted on three charges. His wife, Ideliz Aleman-Valentin, was acquitted on all charges.

A related case before Judge Wu found a North Hollywood man guilty on federal charges involving the trafficking of counterfeit pharmaceuticals. Edward Alarcon, 44, was convicted of two counts of trafficking in counterfeit OxyContin and Cialis. Alarcon had purchased the counterfeit OxyContin from the same man who allegedly supplied Ortiz Gonzalez.

The cases against Ortiz Gonzalez and Alarcon are the result of investigations by HSI; the Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations; and the United States Postal Inspection Service. In a related note, Bo Jiang, the man who allegedly supplied Ortiz Gonzalez and Alarcon, is still a fugitive.

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