FYI
LI company to pay $950,000 to settle DEA charges
July 22, 2004, 1:15 AM EDT
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP) _ A Long Island company agreed Wednesday to pay
$950,000 to settle civil claims that it improperly shipped massive
quantities of an ingredient used to make methamphetamine, federal
prosecutors and DEA officials said.
The charges stemmed from Bohemia-based NBTY's "failure to give prior
notice to the Drug Enforcement Administration of suspicious shipments of
pseudoephedrine tablets and failing to obtain identification from
customers to whom NBTY sold pseudoephedrine tablets," said Robert Nardoza,
a spokesman for Roslynn Mauskopf, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern
District of New York.
NBTY President Harvey Kamil said in a telephone interview that the
decision to settle was made in the best interests of the company. "We have
not admitted any wrongdoing," he said. "These were technical violations
innocently committed by the company."
Pseudoephedrine tablets are legitimately used in small quantities as cold
medication, but in larger quantities, they can be used to manufacture
methamphetamine, Nardoza said. The tablets have been regulated by the
federal government since October 1997 under the Controlled Substances Act
in order to prevent their use in the making of the illicit drug.
Federal officials claimed that on 385 occasions between January 1999 and
May 2002, NBTY shipped large quantities of pseudoephedrine tablets to
mail-order customers. Some of the shipments were in excess of 100,000
tablets. NBTY also failed to obtain identification from customers on 8,377
shipments, prosecutors said.
At least 143 of NBTYs customers have been arrested on criminal charges
related to methamphetamine and/or pseudoephedrine in California, Oklahoma,
Texas, Arizona, Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee, Nardoza said.
Also, illegal methamphetamine manufacturing laboratories have been found
in Arkansas, Colorado and Arizona, at locations where NBTY shipped
pseudoephedrine tablets, prosecutors said.
"This settlement sends a message to companies that manufacture and
distribute listed chemicals that the laws and regulations governing the
sale of these chemicals will be rigorously enforced to ensure that the
chemicals are not diverted for illegal use," Mauskopf said in a statement.
Copyright � 2004, The Associated Press
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