- 6 hours ago
Access to fake pharmaceuticals has become easier with a growing supply available over the internet and on the streets. Lawmakers attempt to crack down on these dangerous smugglers and backstreet pharmacists....
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00:00.
00:12Knock off pharma is bigger than heroin.
00:16Probably got one of us in every state supply and demand.
00:19It's on the internet, in the pharmacies, and on the streets.
00:23Regular narcotics come in here by the ton,
00:26so it's not hard to bring pharmaceuticals in here at all.
00:30And the demand is growing.
00:33But as the cops crack down...
00:35We're going to end up with more pharmaceuticals
00:37that cannot be sold in the U.S. because they're potentially dangerous.
00:41The trade is getting ugly.
00:43Now the drug you take could be fake and the consequences deadly.
00:48I'm constantly reliving the death and the suffering of my mother.
00:58It's Friday morning at a medical center in a southwestern town.
01:04T.J. is a man on a mission.
01:22T.J. is a thief.
01:24His target, the insurance companies.
01:27T.J. Okay.
01:28You know, I'll be down there.
01:29You're in your truck, right?
01:30T.J. I'm actually in a red vehicle right now.
01:33He doesn't use a knife or a gun.
01:35He works a scam.
01:37T.J. Hey, Dr. Bob!
01:39His crime, fraud.
01:41T.J. How you doing, sir?
01:44I'm gonna do cash transaction this month and I'll probably see you again next week and this one's
01:50good to go today the others on Monday you said you betcha thank you sir cool have a good weekend
01:54I'll see you next weekend dr. Bob is one of TJ's partners in crime TJ pays him to write
02:05out bogus prescriptions for meds that TJ can sell for good money I just paid him cash
02:13obviously they're not gonna risk losing their license but they'll push the limit but the
02:18doctors are only half of the scam to get the prescriptions filled TJ needs valid IDs a lot
02:27of the clientele that I have are lifetime friends I pay them for prescription you know we'll always
02:33be friends but we keep the business business other people involved they're gonna make their
02:37little money and all the way down to the doctorate TJ sells to a distributor he's a middleman in a
02:45complex chain it's a lucrative occupation but TJ is finding it hard to keep up with the increasing
02:52demand this business it's really hard to keep a good supply one thing is stopping him from upping
02:59his supply he's got to watch his numbers we can't do too much on the insurance month to month if
03:07he
03:07fills too many prescriptions insurers will smell a rat this morning the pressure is on he's promised a
03:15big supply of prescription meds to an illegal distributor I've been driving around since just
03:20after six o'clock this morning just meeting a few people here and there and drop this off pick that
03:26up do this meet that guy and there it is but pharmacies are getting wiser and tightening up
03:38TJ targets a drive-through pharmacy he hopes won't be so hot on scrutiny
03:54yeah I believe so I'm not sure about this location
04:00but there's a problem TJ doesn't have his friend's ID and has to dig himself out of a hole
04:09I think I didn't ask him if he had insurance that one's not mine he just asked that I drop
04:13it off
04:13for him I'm not sure if he's gonna pay cash or use his insurance on it so I didn't ask
04:17all the details
04:17sorry yeah so I guess he could show you his insurance card at that time or pay cash
04:26it's a tense moment if he's caught out he could face a year in jail for possession
04:35thank you so much have a good day he'll take a rain check on that prescription
04:46TJ is now down on meds and meets Gabe another middleman who has surplus meds on hand
04:54Gabe charges TJ a wholesale price for a stash of pills and TJ takes it on credit
05:02you know I'm golden
05:05with Gabe's load and the rest of his prescription meds collected
05:09TJ has enough to supply the distributor and to make himself $500 profit
05:17it's a common scam in health care where we've seen a real increase in the type of what we call
05:26diversion which means you know taking the product out of legitimate sources and moving it into the black
05:37market as an undercover cop Steve Opperman can't reveal his identity he's about to hit the streets
05:45of East LA to gather some Intel these aren't the kind of drugs that drug-seeking people are looking for
05:53such as hydrocodone and Oxycontin it's not to get high these are maintenance drugs they're very expensive
05:59and they're the types of drugs that are covered through Medicare is primarily what is being targeted
06:05so those particular pharmaceuticals this is what the diverters are seeking
06:14but for Steve and the authorities clamping down on the black market has a predictable economic side effect
06:20as we drive this problem underground the prices do go up so we've seen antibiotic products you know
06:27we first started doing this you know maybe went for a dollar and now the same pill is going for
06:32five
06:32dollars you know because it's harder to get back in the southwestern town TJ's distributor is waiting
06:40for his consignment he has up to 30 customers wanting meds and he's struggling to keep up the phone never
06:48stops I'm
06:49getting text messages constantly you know what can you do you have this yet can you get this
06:58Dugan faces massive demand some of his customers want drugs their doctors won't prescribe others don't
07:04have adequate insurance my day just consists of working and getting these people their medicine when
07:11I get my medications from TJ then I'll start making calls and I'll go and make my deliveries as quickly
07:16as
07:16possible Dugan is in for a hefty jail sentence if he's caught
07:24every time I carry a prescription medication that isn't prescribed to me I'm looking at for certain
07:31drugs years for each pill that I have on me it's the same as if I was selling heroin as
07:37if I was dealing
07:38crack I'm dealing with the same laws that they can use against me for medicine Dugan has his reasons
07:46for selling scam pharma my mom was diagnosed with lupus about 20 years ago and watching that as a kid
07:55growing up and dealing with that pain watching her running out of medication every month my mom's not
08:01a drug user my mom's not a drug abuser she doesn't doesn't get high and when she couldn't find any
08:08other
08:08way to do it I found a four now he sees himself as a kind of Robin Hood helping others
08:15in need the
08:16people that are coming to me for things like insulin or autoimmune disease drugs or antibiotics they're
08:23getting these from me because they don't have health insurance they're not set up in a position where they
08:28can afford health insurance even with the mandatory mandated health insurance acts so they come to me and
08:34they say what can you do Dugan sells to drug abusers profiting from their addiction his altruism doesn't
08:44extend to them I'm gonna make enough money selling the prescription you know painkillers and narcotics
08:52to all the other people that are abusing them I sell to them at a high price I make a
08:58lot of money doing
08:58that and I turn around and use that money to get these other people what they need across town one
09:08of Dugan's customers is waiting anxiously for a delivery I've had two strokes and a heart attack
09:16and I have Parkinson's and diabetes the Parkinson's hurts when you shake it just really puts me into a
09:31deep depression because I'm hurting so bad he struggles without a cocktail of meds this is
09:39Prevastatin that's for cholesterol this is tramadol and I take that so I can sleep that's
09:46Meropex that's for my Parkinson's but he wants more drugs than his prescriptions allow I run out
09:56and I don't take more than I'm supposed to but they don't give me enough they give me a 28
10:02day
10:03supply but they won't let me get a refill for 30 days Sam is terrified of being found out if
10:11I get
10:11arrested I'd probably last about a week in jail probably the scariest of all is I'm afraid that
10:17my doctor my therapist will find out but I gotta do what I gotta do when cops clamp down on
10:31supplies
10:31from scammers demand goes deeper underground pushing it into the hands of ruthless opportunists
10:40back in East LA sergeant Steve Opperman and detective Juan Gomez are working undercover the tracking the
10:48street sale of illegal antibiotics smuggled from Mexico there's a lot of mistrust with our systems
10:54here and our medical services these are people that are seeking healthcare treatment not through
11:00legitimate means and it's you know a lot has to do with a cultural belief in certain medications and
11:04a certain way of doing things for instance in Mexico a lot of people that immigrate here are used to
11:11going to
11:11a healer that maybe you know is somebody's home they're just gonna go in there to get a medic treatment
11:19Steve has found that some people in this neighborhood avoid regular health care and self-medicate with black
11:25market meds some undocumented migrants also fear a visit to a doctor means risking deportation
11:41demand is so great that mom-and-pop stores are selling meds under the counter
11:45this is just another product that is actually very profitable their main business is usually something
11:52else this guy is at the clothing store where they sell medicines to in here see the pharmaceuticals
12:01here on display some of your street vendors also sell medicines and they're on the sidewalk we've seen
12:09people actually in the park itself selling too Steve and Juan spot a man they've busted before
12:24they pump them for info
12:36but pain relievers aren't the only pharma of choice
12:47Steve and Juan hunt for the meds sneaked in from Mexico the problem they feel lies not on the streets
12:53of L.A.
12:54but at the border itself you know our regular narcotics come in here by the ton so it's not hard
13:02to bring
13:02pharmaceuticals in here at all if you go to the Mexican border basically they have a green light red light
13:09and
13:09it's random so you know if you hit the red light you're gonna get inspected through secondary if you
13:14make it through you know you're pretty much home free
13:23it's a roll of the dice get caught smuggling prescription pills and you face up to 20 years in
13:29jail but some cannot resist the temptation this is an anti-biotics I buy for two dollars instead of for
13:38appeal Saul is a smuggler he gets his meds from Mexico and can double his money for some of the
13:51pills he
13:52sells in the u.s. I just walked to the border and that's it I know the risk you need
13:59to be
13:59precautious but not that precaution he has a basic smuggling technique there is always a way to hide it
14:10you know pepper under my belly the pills wrap it on them you know most of Saul's clientele are retail
14:19businesses like a regular store like a marketplace where you can go buy meat meals whatever I can I
14:26think they resell it to the to the people but everything he sells anything from Viagra to Valium
14:34but one thing goes like hotcakes 95 percent of the things that they ask is antibiotics because it's
14:41hard to get them so if they need some antibiotics I bring them over there but without the right
14:52medical supervision some street deal meds could kill sometimes people actually get injured or end up in
15:02the hospital occasionally somebody may actually die from these things such as the risk to the
15:10American consumer that Street Pharma is now on the federal radar we're probably going to end up with
15:18more items that cannot be sold in the US because they're potentially dangerous Daniel Showalter and his
15:29team of Homeland Security special agents are working with local cops to bust suspect pharmacies the most
15:37important thing for us is the drugs but first we need that quantity and I think the quantity milligram how
15:43much of the drug we're actually taking see now if we can get that detailed and that makes it that
15:47much
15:47easier for us and that's how detailed we want okay hey GB hold for me before you roll the drug
15:57they're
15:57targeting today is an anti-inflammatory called diprospan prescribed for a number of conditions
16:04including rheumatoid arthritis hay fever and acne but diprospan is banned in the United States self-medicate the
16:13dose and you could be in big trouble what concerns us the most out of any the other pharmaceuticals is
16:20it's an injectable so the fact that they are injecting this liquid into their bodies directly causes a lot
16:27of concern about the general public safety we believe that it was smuggled into the US potentially through
16:38land border but diprospan is just one of many pharmaceuticals that are smuggled into the US and
16:45the reason for it is because there is a demand okay when Daniel and his officers arrive at the pharmacy
17:01the owner isn't letting him in any movement Glenn we can also pick that lock
17:10here she comes here she comes southern California police in the warrant homeland security special agents
17:19and local PD are raiding a suspect pharmacy we need a photograph they're targeting an illegal injectable
17:27anti-inflammatory called diprospan injecting too much could cause serious side effects including blindness
17:35we get through this pretty quick but it's not looking good for Daniel really not a lot of product for
17:44a store
17:45you know but we'll get we get officers check the cash register but don't have much luck
17:56anything to do
17:57Daniel and his team pile the pharma on the shop floor they systematically check every item
18:04but they haven't found a single box of diprospan
18:10they sweep the back office and find hundreds of envelopes full of cash
18:18it's no small change it's fifty thousand dollars
18:24it's a lot of cash in a hamper the find is alarming
18:29a ton of cash and a lack of diprospan stock could mean officers are too late
18:37but just as they're about to give up hope
18:43is that is that diprospan there there's diprospan 1 ml in there
18:46okay so it's legitimately made in Mexico but then smuggled into the US 35 to 60
18:56dollars is what they're charging it may look like a small haul but at least these
19:02illegal and potentially dangerous drugs are off the streets branded products can
19:10provide cops with leads but some black marketeers avoid brands altogether they
19:15buy the ingredients find the formulation we're getting stronger every day
19:22you probably got one of us in every state somewhere supply and demand demand for
19:32black market pharma is insatiable but even mom-and-pop kitchen chemists like
19:38pretty boy and Heidi can never hope to satisfy at all
19:44this opens up the door to more heavyweight suppliers many of whom are just a click
19:50away
19:53ordering pharma online has opened up the US to a pharmaceutical invasion from all
19:58corners of the world but the pharma is not always what it claims to be
20:09LAX international mail facility one of the biggest in America
20:21customs officers here are on the prowl for contraband top of their hit list pharma
20:27that's neither scammed nor cloned but fake on any given day up to 50% of all the
20:35pharmaceuticals that we get here can be either counterfeit or illicit it's 7 30 a.m
20:46Christian Crawford is starting his day he's checking out anything that looks
20:51suspicious his priority is fake pharma us letting counterfeits go by it's really
21:00hard for us to do so we don't do it any kind of counterfeit is highly dangerous you just don't
21:07know what you're getting with kind of pharmaceuticals he quickly spots something on the x-ray
21:14looks like a big blob goodness gracious
21:22this box is from Peru we'll get bundles of antibiotics things like that that aren't in actual
21:29packages I mean they're just literally in bags it smells um tell it's an antibiotic just by that
21:37but if you've ever been sick and you have to pop those pills and you open up that
21:41that antibiotic jar and that smell just hits you so
21:48it makes you actually makes you nauseated
21:56so there's uh 30 000 antibiotics they'll probably sell a regiment for maybe 25 dollars
22:03that would fill a lot of prescription bottles
22:06on the street they could be worth in the region of eighty thousand dollars
22:12a haul like this is unusual in a bid to avoid detection fake pharma suppliers are tending to
22:20ship their products one component at a time the trend is large powder forms of whatever the drug is so
22:28what they're doing now is they're trying to trying to import in say the powder form of some drug
22:34and one day we'll get a huge shipment of capsules uh blank capsules and then another time we got the
22:42actual uh pill making machines it's going to some back room or some small factory that they're making
22:50the pills out and then selling them on the street
23:02and then selling them on the street
23:02many americans buy their meds online to save money but they're vulnerable to rip off or worse
23:17back at the la county sheriff's department undercover operative steve opferman and his
23:22officers are feeling the force of a global phenomenon
23:26fake pharma that infiltrated u.s borders has been seized in a dawn raid
23:35the supply chain you know goes from through pakistan to
23:38those communities in the uk where they mail it throughout the world
23:45and some of these are counterfeit they come from a different country
23:49and there's no whether no way to tell whether or not they are the genuine article
23:59wong is a pharmacist he's checking this seizure for dangerous ingredients masquerading as meds
24:06and let's see here but in here we have counsel for different antibiotics too that require prescriptions as
24:12well too this is what we're trying to avoid to make sure that the general public isn't going to be
24:18a victim of
24:18this because this can lead to any type of allergy infection or even deaths
24:26authorities are fighting against the influx of fake pharma
24:30down in the basement at la county sheriff's headquarters eric aguilar is running out of space
24:36probably burn about three million dollars worth of pharmaceuticals a year
24:44eric is an environmental health officer he's standing in an aladdin's cave of seized global pharma
24:53this stuff is actually very expensive this particular box probably has a hundred thousand dollars street value
25:00it's shipped from india to el salvador and ends up here if we cut this at the very end of
25:06the chain
25:07i would think it would have had to have been at least five different hands
25:13when we get at the at the very end of the chain they'll say oh i don't know anything
25:18and you know there's no further information so that's the difficult part for us criminal gangs break
25:25down larger stashes into smaller consignments making them easier to move around the world and virtually
25:31impossible for the authorities to trace this is a counterfeit viagra it's got the pfizer logo on it too
25:40some are good-looking fakes and others fall short of the mark and these are labels that were printed on
25:48the in check printer at home these boxes have reached the end of the line
25:54but it's a small battle won in the war against the fakers
26:00authorities are fighting a merciless opponent motivated by profits with a genuine contempt for
26:06consumers
26:10big pharma companies are squaring up against them in a bid to stamp them out
26:16and manufacturing giant pfizer is first in line
26:21the hideousness of the crime is they have so little regard for the patient
26:25you know the patient's health is not of their concern
26:31the unfortunate trend is that it's just a significantly growing problem
26:37counterfeiters don't care what they use
26:41fake versions of drugs have contained brick dust paint antifreeze and in one case in south korea
26:50the remains of human fetuses
27:00viagra is one of the company's best sellers making pfizer over a billion dollars in 2012
27:09it's now fast becoming the most faked pill in the world
27:13one of these bags is authentic and one of these bags is counterfeit
27:22it's senior scientist amy kalinan's job to test up to 1 000 different samples of viagra a year
27:29and to work out whether they're real or fake it's very tough but it's in this column somewhere
27:38it's not dirty it's not turquoise it's not dark it's not turquoise it's not dark it's not dirty it's
27:44this row these are the authentics there they are if you like the color blue this is a great place
27:50to work
27:52the big manufacturers have reason to feel threatened the fake pharma market is thought to be worth up to 200
27:59billion dollars that makes it more profitable than heroin
28:13and pfizer is on a mission to weed out the counterfeiters stealing its name
28:18as criminal organizations have recognized what a treasure trove counterfeits represent in terms of
28:26profits it's ungodly the folks at pfizer have the expertise to spot a fake
28:37but the same can't be said for most consumers here we have unison it's an injectable antibiotic
28:45these came from the philippines we looked at the labels and they're different which is a little
28:50suspicious and then when we tested the contents of these vials there was no active ingredient
28:55no antibiotic in it whatsoever the sophistication is making the medicine appear authentic their
29:04concentration is on the appearance and so the manufacturing of counterfeit labels of counterfeit
29:09boxes of counterfeit holograms those are the things that are becoming problematic despite resources and
29:18expertise pfizer is facing a tidal wave of sophisticated counterfeiting clever packaging is deceiving the public
29:26and putting lives in danger
29:32in the world of fake pharma producers are getting savvy with their labeling
29:40disguising harmful ingredients and shipping them out to millions of innocent consumers
29:44in the world of fake pharma producers
29:57Pakistan
29:59about 10 miles south of the country's capital islamabad is rawal pindi
30:06a fast-growing city
30:10and home to fake pharma producers with money on their minds
30:24it's 10 a.m and shahzad is starting another eight hour shift
30:29packing thousands of fake painkillers
31:00shahzad made a
31:02to be a free agent, but he's on a basic wage.
31:06The man making the real money is the distributor
31:09he's packing for.
31:30Shehzad is grateful for a job and doesn't ask any questions.
31:56Just down the hallway, another outfit is hard at work.
32:04These guys make fake cough mixture on sight.
32:25Ilyas is a packer.
32:27He's one of a 25-strong team.
32:31But it's Mazhar Ali who's the brains behind the operation.
32:52Mazhar has a natural talent for chemistry, despite not having any qualifications.
33:01As long as he has the right ingredients, Mazhar claims he can pretty much cook up anything.
33:25Once their pharma leaves the building, it will journey hundreds or possibly thousands
33:30of miles from the streets of Rawalpindi.
33:52It's all in a day's work for Mazhar and Ilyas.
33:58But the fake drugs they're shipping could be doing untold harm to untold numbers of people
34:04across the globe.
34:14Fake pharma is now threatening even the legitimate medical supply chain.
34:21No one is safe.
34:23You're taking a risk that this might not be the medication for you.
34:28It might be a medication that is actually going to make you worse or even kill you.
34:39In 2007, Kendra's mother, Catherine Naya, was administered heparin during a heart operation.
34:51But the heparin didn't seem to help.
34:54Catherine's blood did not thin.
34:56I guess right after I left the room, my mother's heart just stopped completely.
35:02They did an emergency opening of her heart in the room and found a clot next to her heart.
35:11Which didn't make a lot of sense because she had had over 160,000 units of heparin during her surgery.
35:22Doctors managed to save Catherine.
35:25But they needed to perform a second surgical procedure.
35:30She ended up with another very large dose of heparin for that procedure.
35:34It was at 12,000 units.
35:36And immediately after that, her heart stopped again.
35:40And at this time, she was without a heartbeat, pressure, oxygen for 40 minutes.
35:46Catherine suffered severe brain and organ damage and remained seriously ill until she died almost three years later.
35:57The manufacturer maintains that an underlying medical condition caused Catherine's death.
36:08The things that happened to her were consistent with the counterfeit heparin contamination.
36:17Heparin's active ingredient is made from pig intestine.
36:27But this time, the supplier produced a batch that contains something different.
36:38The heparin was found to be contaminated with a synthetic material that had a toxic side effect.
36:47The US manufacturer involved took responsibility and tightened up its scrutiny of foreign contractors.
36:57But for Kendra, these steps aren't enough.
37:01She's campaigning for greater awareness of her mother's case.
37:06I'm constantly reliving the death and the suffering of my mother.
37:10Even if there isn't ever justice, I need to know that I tried everything that I could to stand up
37:16for what was right.
37:17Not only for my mother, but for other innocent people.
37:21It's a lonely battle.
37:29Meanwhile, on the west coast, at LAX, customs officer Christian Crawford is fighting the war against fake pharma, one parcel
37:38at a time.
37:40In his small kitchen far from LA, producer Pretty Boy is finishing off a big order for an international client.
37:48We're not just here locally. Everything we're doing is going to way different parts of the earth right now.
37:56As long as there's a demand, fraudsters will work to supply it.
38:01The self-appointed Robin Hoods will seek it out.
38:12Part of what pushes people into the illegal activity is the pain that you can go through in that.
38:17And I've seen it firsthand is enough to make you risk everything in order to not feel that anymore.
38:24And the authorities will continue to fight.
38:28There's a great deal of profit to be made, but, you know, it's definitely a, you know, multi-billion dollar
38:32black market industry.
38:34At the same time, for some people, it's just about making money.
38:39It's the American dream.
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