Previous Story
Fake Viagra peddler gets 6-mo. sentence
|
Posted on Nov 10 2011
The federal court sentenced yesterday to six months in prison Cai Xia Xu, a Chinese female national tagged by federal agents as a big-time supplier of fake Viagra.
Xu was given credit for the six months she has already spent in jail, which means she should already have been released yesterday.
Michael Dotts, the court-appointed counsel for Xu, told reporters after the sentencing that the U.S. Marshal Service will turn Xu over to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for deportation proceedings.
Trafficking in counterfeit goods is a deportable offense.
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona ordered Xu to pay $9,365.23 in restitution to Viagra manufacturer Pfizer and required her to pay a $250 court assessment fee.
Xu was placed on three years of supervised release and required, among other conditions, to perform 100 hours of community service.
Dotts said that Xu, who has been on Saipan for 12 years now, used to be a garment worker who eventually engaged in farming.
Xu pleaded guilty in July to two counts of trafficking in counterfeit goods as part of a plea deal. The other charges—introduction of misbranded drugs into interstate commerce and receipt and delivery of misbranded drugs in interstate commerce—were dropped.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations said that a confidential source bought a total of 50 bottles of fake Viagra from Xu in separate occasions earlier this year. Each bottle reportedly contained at least 30 tablets.
An FDA agent said that test results on the drug bought from Xu showed that the label and foil seal were not authentic and the bottle had a wrong recycle code.
An officer from Pfizer Global Security reportedly tested the tablets and determined that the tablets and labeling were both fake.
