$1 Million in Illegal Medicines Seized

Drugs worth about $1 million were seized in Van Nuys on Thursday in a crackdown on the illegal sale of prescription medications like the ones believed to have killed two infants in Orange County.

The raid at La Colmena general store unearthed “enough drugs to stock a Thrifty or a Save-on,” said Gregory Thompson, a pharmacist with the county Department of Health Services.

Officials said most of the drugs--which were being sold over the counter to anyone who requested them--were found hidden behind false walls in the store at 7066 Van Nuys Blvd.

Personnel from the health department, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department launched the raid after receiving tips that the store owner was selling drugs banned for sale in this country or banned for sale without a doctor’s prescription.

The owner, Santa Elba Hernandez, 55, was booked on suspicion of selling controlled substances.

“It shocked me how much drugs we found,” Thompson said. “They were all over the place.”

Thompson said they included codeine syrups, Valium and penicillin, which can only be sold legally with prescriptions.

He said other drugs confiscated included medications banned in the United States because of their life-threatening side effects. These, he said, included Dipiron, an anti-inflammatory, and Sexpronto, a steroid marketed as a sexual aid for men.

The store, which sells everything from food and clothing to toys and Tarot card readings, was closed by officials after the raid.

The raid follows the death last week of an 18-month-old Anaheim girl, Selene Segura Rios, shortly after she received what was believed to be an injection of penicillin by an unlicensed practitioner at a gift shop in Tustin.

A 13-month-old Santa Ana boy, Christopher Martinez, died 10 months ago after he received five injections at an unlicensed Santa Ana clinic.

After the boy’s death, a coalition was formed to warn Latino immigrants about the dangers of unauthorized drug sales and unlicensed medical care.

Nonetheless, officials say, the practices continue among people in whose native countries such sales and treatments are often legal.

A man from Ecuador, who gave his name only as Ivan, told reporters outside the store in Van Nuys that he has been buying drugs there for himself and his wife.

“We can’t afford to buy them in a drugstore, and we don’t have prescriptions,” Ivan said. “You have to get your drugs where you can find them.”

Ironically, Thompson said, the drugs sold at the general store in Van Nuys often cost five times as much as they would at legitimate pharmacies.

Officials say most of the prescription drugs sold illegally in this country are manufactured in Mexico or other Latin American countries.

One problem with them is that quality control is lax, and many of the medicines are counterfeit, said Lisa Fairchild, a U.S. Customs agent.

“A scarier danger is that sometimes the packets don’t contain the medicine that the label says is inside,” Fairchild said.

Figures released by customs officials show 107 seizures of pharmaceuticals at ports along the California-Mexico border in the last four months. Six people have been arrested on smuggling counts while in possession of a variety of restricted drugs, including antibiotics, opiates, barbiturates and Viagra, the agents said.