|
<br /> ....FDA Consumer, Septemb 1995 Investigators' Rs+~orts Page
<br /> ....FDA Consumer, September 1995 Investigators` Repor~s
<br /> Drug Trafficker Jailed
<br /> by Paula Kurtzweil
<br /> A 52-year-old California man is serving a 16-month sentence at Federal
<br /> Prison Camp, Boron, Calif., for helping to sell and distribute an illegal dr
<br /> touted for weight control, bodybuilding, and insomnia.
<br /> Fran is ar s en er, a so nown as Fran i ards. formerly of Villa
<br /> Park, Calif., now of Laguna Beach, Calif., was sentenced ~~ct. 27, 1994, for
<br /> conspiring to illegally distribute gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GHB. His
<br /> co-worker, Lance Crews Griffin, 46, was sentenced March 23, 1994, to two yea
<br /> nine months.
<br /> GHB is le all allowed as an investigational new drag for treatment of
<br /> narco_eps a rare slee in sickness. I e a as yen romote or
<br /> strPnvth t~ininq, muscle bui ding, weiq t loss and as
<br /> a+r~acement for
<br /> L-tryptophan, a food supplement used as a sleep aid FDA acdered removed from
<br /> the market in 1989, after it was linked to a rare bland disorder. GH8 also i
<br /> •used illegally as a hallucinogen.
<br /> can cause severe stomach pain, low blood pressu.ce, irregular
<br /> eartbeat, vomiting, dizziness, seizures, respiratory arrest, liver failure,
<br /> and coma. Health authorities have received reports of illnesses in at least
<br /> people in California, Florida and Georgia since 1991.
<br /> Under the name Omniopathy Products, Zenker and Griffin sold GHB in bul'.
<br /> powder and capsule form, bottled and falsely labeled as a:lother illegal
<br /> product, glutathione, from a fictitious company named RTL Labs of Oakland,
<br /> Calif. They distributed the product throughout the United States and abroad.
<br /> FDA learned about the men's illegal activities thro•lgh "Operation Big
<br /> Mouth," a massive effort by FDA, the U.S. Customs Service, the U.S. Attorney
<br /> Office, and other government agencies to identify and prosecute illicit drug
<br /> traffickers. It was so named because defendants cooperate•3 with authorities
<br /> admitting guilt and identifying other drug traffickers. C,~operatinq defendan
<br /> also helped FDA make undercover purchases of illegal drugs.
<br /> Armed with information about Omniopathy, in March 1391, FDA investigat
<br /> went to the business address at a residence in Villa Park. Calif., where the
<br /> spoke to Griffin. (This address was later identified as also being Zenker`s
<br /> residence.)
<br /> Griffin identified himself as company owner and sari he founded the
<br /> company--a pharmaceutical distributorship--in 1988. He said he had more thar
<br /> 800 customers and the company made about $350,000 a year. He also told
<br /> investigators he stopped selling GHB in 1991, after FDA issued a warning ab<
<br /> the drug.
<br /> FDA learned that Zenker worked for Omniopathy part ~ime and was one o:
<br /> six employees. None of the employees was a licensed pharmacist and none had
<br /> approval to receive, make or distribute drugs.
<br /> In August 1991, FDA investigators tracked the busin•ss to a new site
<br /> Santa Ana, Calif. Searching through trash at the new location, investigator
<br /> found invoices and other documents showing Omniopathy was selling GHB. One
<br /> invoice included the typed statement "Dr. Thatcher, the O:ty-Sleep is the
<br /> product that we had discussed before (GHB, relabeled), an outstanding produ
<br />
<br />
|