17 Indicted in Sale of Bootlegged Medications

With a batch of indictments, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration threw its weight Tuesday behind local efforts to curb the potentially dangerous sale of bootlegged prescription drugs in Southern California’s immigrant neighborhoods.

A Los Angeles federal grand jury indicted 17 people on charges of operating back-room clinics in the San Fernando Valley and Orange County where medications were sold and administered by unlicensed personnel.

Two Orange County children died after receiving medicine sold at black market clinics cited in the indictments.

“Immigrants should be aware that these clinics offer a dangerous brew that may harm your health and the health of your family,” U.S. Atty. Alejandro N. Mayorkas said at a news conference announcing the indictments.

Illegal immigrants often turn to underground drug vendors because they fear being handed over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service if they seek medical help at public clinics.

Mayorkas sought to allay those anxieties. “There are safe and legal clinics available for you and your children where you will be treated regardless of your immigration status,” he said.

The 17 defendants are charged with offenses ranging from violating the federal Food and Drug Act to receiving smuggled goods and possession of controlled substances. Those charges carry stiffer penalties than those currently available under California law.

Nine suspects are in custody; the others are fugitives. Some have fled the country, officials said.

Affidavits filed in the federal case described scenes in which clinic employees falsely identified themselves as doctors, diagnosed a customer’s medical problem and then prescribed a medication.

Local law enforcement authorities have been waging an uphill battle against the illegal pharmacies for the past two years since an 18-month-old girl died from an injection by an unlicensed practitioner in a Tustin gift shop. A 15-year-old boy, also from Orange County, died later under similar circumstances.

A Los Angeles County task force, made up of Los Angeles police, county sheriff’s deputies and state health investigators, has conducted nearly 200 raids against illegal pharmacies since 1998. Most of those arrested have been charged with misdemeanors.

“Having the federal government joining us in these prosecutions is very welcome,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who spearheaded creation of the local enforcement group.

Orange County has established a task force that focuses on education rather than prosecutions. Its aim is to persuade immigrants from Mexico and Central America to utilize low-cost health clinics instead of patronizing back-room establishments.

The illicit medications are typically smuggled across the border from Mexico, where drugs that require a doctor’s prescription in the United States are often sold on the open market. Batches of pharmaceuticals seized during raids at several warehouses bore labeling and instructions in Spanish.

Some pharmaceuticals banned for safety reasons in the United States were seized during raids at several stores and warehouses, the FDA said.

The indictments unsealed Tuesday targeted two major rings that operated in Los Angeles and Orange counties, Mayorkas said.

One ring was said to be headed by a family patriarch, Manuel Javier King, 71, of Tustin, a fugitive. He was charged with receiving smuggled and misbranded drugs, illegally dispensing drugs and possession of anabolic steroids.

According to the indictment, the King family operated the Los Hermanos store in Tustin. Family member Laura Escalante, 38, passing herself off as a medical doctor, examined 18-month-old Selene Seguros Rios there in February 1999, and prescribed a Mexican drug known as Neo-Melubrina, prosecutors alleged. That pain and fever medication was banned by the FDA because of dangerous side effects in 1977.

Los Hermanos employees injected the Rios baby with the drug twice. She died a few days later.

Escalante, her husband, Joel, 43, both of Tustin, and his brother, Ramon, 53, of National City were all indicted on federal smuggling charges and FDA violations. They were listed as fugitives. Laura Escalante is also facing a state charge of involuntary manslaughter stemming from the baby’s death.

Also being sought are two of King’s daughters. Rosa King, 42, of Irvine is accused of receiving smuggled drugs and selling them at 99-cent y Mas and at Nashelie’s, both located in Santa Ana.

It was at Nashelie’s that the parents of a 15-year-old paraplegic boy were sold a quantity of the drug Lincocin. The boy went into convulsions after being administered the drug and died.

King’s other daughter, Silvia Fernandez, 45, of Tustin, was charged with selling drugs from Adriana’s Gift Shop in Santa Ana and possession of a controlled substance, diazepam.

One official said the King family marked up the price of some Mexican medicines substantially, charging $60 for a drug that cost $2 in Mexico. A search warrant affidavit issued last year for a King-owned gift shop in Santa Ana said the family made as much as $1,000 a day from the sale of illegal medicines.

The second major black market ring operated in the San Fernando Valley, authorities said. It was allegedly run by Santa Elba Hernandez, a 56-year-old Northridge woman who recently completed a two-year state prison sentence for selling illegal Mexican drugs. She was arrested Friday and a number of her pharmacies were shut down.

Prosecutors said Hernandez and several of her children operated black market dispensaries under the name of La Colmena in Sun Valley, Arleta, North Hollywood and Van Nuys.

According to a government affidavit, Hernandez earned enough money from the illegal sales to purchase her Northridge home for $280,000 in cash and to buy another home for an undisclosed amount.

Arrested along with Hernandez were her sister, Gloria Nieves, 57, of Van Nuys; a son, Edwin, 33, of Northridge; daughters Rita L. Arango, 33, of Sylmar and Claudia Casas, 31, of Granada Hills. Also indicted were Arango’s husband, Jaime, 43, and Casas’ husband, Leonardo, 31, who has been in state prison on unrelated charges.

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Times staff writer H.G. Reza in Orange County contributed to this story.