Man Sentenced for False Claim of Syringe in Pepsi Can

A Dominican Republic citizen residing in Alaska was sentenced Thursday to serve 27 months in federal prison for falsely claiming that he found a syringe in a can of Pepsi he bought at a local store, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Valentine Rodriguez-Solel Botello, also known as Jose Pagan, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jack Sedwick. Botello was convicted by a jury in March of making a false report about the Pepsi product, officials said.

After that conviction, it was discovered that the man calling himself “Jose Pagan” had used someone else’s birth certificate to obtain a U.S. passport and had been representing himself as a U.S. citizen since 1969, officials said.

The 27-month sentence also reflects a conviction for using a fraudulently procured passport, officials said.

Botello was indicted June 22, 1993, eight days after he entered a local grocery store and claimed his 4-year-old daughter had been pierced in the mouth by a syringe found in a can of caffeine-free Pepsi purchased there.

An investigation by agents of the Food and Drug Administration revealed that Botello had concealed the fact that he was an insulin-dependent diabetic who used the same type of syringe he claimed to have found in the can, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Other FDA investigations found that it would have been impossible for a can of the beverage to have been shipped with a syringe inside from Seattle to Anchorage--as the local store’s stock was--without causing several scratches on the inside of the can, officials said.