O.C. Officials Seek Task Force on Illegal Clinics

Orange County officials Wednesday called for a task force to crack down on storefront operations that illegally treat the sick and dispense prescription medicine.

The action follows the death of an 18-month-old Anaheim girl shortly after allegedly receiving an injection by an unlicensed practitioner at a Tustin gift shop last week. A 13-month-old Santa Ana boy died 10 months ago after he received five injections at an unlicensed Santa Ana clinic.

Though a state law that went into effect in September lets local health agencies enforce pharmacy laws, county leaders had not yet taken any coordinated action to halt the growing import and sale of illegal pharmaceuticals from the back rooms of toy stores and other businesses.

Last fall, officials in Los Angeles County formed a similar task force that has resulted in 150 raids and 50 arrests, said a spokesman for Supervisor Gloria Molina, who pushed for the state law in her campaign against illegal clinics. One raid at an East Los Angeles market netted more than $1 million in illegal drugs. No deaths have been attributed to such operations in Los Angeles.

“There’s no reason for Orange County not to take this on and combat it,” said Miguel Santana, Molina’s assistant chief deputy. “But it needs an aggressive attitude, because we learned that those in public health and law enforcement minimized the problem.”

On Wednesday, Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer, Dist. Atty. Anthony J. Rackauckas and Sheriff Mike Carona said they want to form such a task force. The countywide effort also would investigate how widespread shipments of mainly Mexican prescription drugs are being smuggled into the county.

“We will be very proactive in shutting down clinics that are dispensing illegal drugs,” Spitzer said after talking with Rackauckas, Carona and Donald Oxley, director of Orange County’s Health Care Agency.

Spitzer, a former prosecutor, said he wants to eradicate what has been described by a state health official as a pervasive black market in pharmaceuticals, mainly in Southern California’s Latino communities.

None of the officials was aware of the law that Assemblyman Martin Gallegos (D-Baldwin Park) sponsored last summer for Molina. The law gives local health agents authority to investigate, seize drugs and shut down businesses illegally providing treatment and selling medicine.

Gallegos said that such operations have spread well beyond Southern California and that tracking them is difficult because they are part of an underground immigrant economy.

“It’s a national issue,” he said. “I hope counties up and down the state recognize this isn’t just an L.A. County issue.”

Carona said his department would be eager to join the task force.

“But there was a sensitivity going into this thing because we didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes,” he said, “because we do not have jurisdiction in Santa Ana or Tustin.”

Also, Carona said, his office was interested in taking action but was approaching it differently. “We were looking at it from a different perspective as to whether we have a problem in Orange County and which agency would take the lead,” he said.

After Spitzer’s call, Carona said, he ordered deputies to meet with Los Angeles County deputies to find out details about their task force. His office also will be asking other counties what they have done, if anything, to combat such illegal businesses.

Rackauckas said he too would join a task force.

“He said he is in favor of investigating these types of cases jointly with the county and the sheriffs, but working out the nuts and bolts of this unit hasn’t been discussed yet,” said Tori Richards, his spokeswoman.

Oxley said his department would be willing to join a task force provided there “is a collaborative effort with other agencies.”

“It sounds like, given this legislation, there’s a control piece in place,” Oxley said. “But we don’t have the ability to do the outreach necessary, like we do with restaurants. We would need people telling us where these operations are.”

After the Santa Ana baby, Christopher Martinez, died last April, city police formed a task force with federal, state and county authorities to root out the unlicensed clinics. The task force included the Santa Ana Safe Medicine Coalition, a citizens group formed in the wake of the death to educate citizens.

Santa Ana Police Capt. Dan McCoy said the task force netted about half a dozen arrests after weeks of sting operations and clinic inspections. But it grew increasingly difficult to find more operations, he said.

The department now relies on a network of community members for tips and information on the locations of the illegal operators.

Molina aide Santana said Los Angeles County was forced to use “creative methods” on a case-by-case basis to go after the botanicas, or herb and remedy shops, and other businesses that sold illegal pharmaceuticals.

“It was odd, because if it was a restaurant or food store, we could have our health code people go in and look for violations,” Santana said.

Though such investigatory authority over illegal pharmaceuticals rests with the state health and medical board agencies, he said, “it was very clear this was not a priority with them and they lacked the resources to combat the problem.”

He urged Orange County officials to be aggressive, especially after the death last week of the Anaheim child, Selene Segura Rios.

“Somebody died there in Tustin, a little girl, and it’s in their control to take this on,” Santana said.

Tustin police are still trying to determine whether the activities of employees at Los Hermanos Gift Shop may have contributed to the girl’s death. Police are waiting for results of toxicological tests.

Times staff writer Nancy Hill-Holtzman and Times correspondent James Meier contributed to this report.