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Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA – A federal jury on Monday convicted two men in an Internet pharmacy network that authorities said illegally peddled millions of dollars worth of drugs worldwide.
The jury deliberated for a day following a seven-week trial before convicting Akhil Bansal and Fred Mullinix on all counts.
Prosecutors said that Bansal, a Temple University graduate student, and his physician father, Brij Bhushan Bansal, currently in custody in India, headed the organization that filled orders for millions of pills placed by more than 4,500 buyers through at least 20 Web sites. One of those sites was operated by Mullinix, officials said.
“This is an important guilty verdict because this case shows us how the Internet has opened the door to an unregulated universe from which anyone with access to a computer can purchase just about anything,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan said. “It’s a dangerous way to bypass the safeguards that are in place to protect the public and these defendants now face the consequences for putting people at risk.”
Mullinix’s attorney, Steven Laver, said he planned to appeal and declined further comment. Akhil Bansal’s attorney, Richard R. Harris, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Seventeen people, including Brij Bansal and three of his children, were charged in April 2005 with selling prescription drugs to American buyers through online pharmacy sites and with laundering millions of dollars in proceeds.
Three other defendants are awaiting trial in June, and the others have either pleaded guilty or are awaiting extradition from Australia or India, Meehan said.
Authorities said the Bansals allegedly obtained the drugs in India and sent them to the United States, where they were redistributed.
An Airborne Express supervisor in suburban Philadelphia prompted the investigation when he found courier envelopes full of diazepam, a generic form of Valium, in packages being shipped by a local business that sent more than 4,300 packages in a 19-day period in February 2004, officials said.
Drugs meant to aid sexual dysfunction were among the most popular in the scheme, Meehan said last year. Buyers often paid above-market rates.