Eliseo Martinez, age 48, a resident of Miami, Florida, was sentenced on January 23, 2020 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit theft of medical products, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Martinez was sentenced to 135 months imprisonment with credit for time served, supervised release for a term of 3 years, and a $300.00 assessment. Martinez was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $203,000. According to court documents, beginning sometime prior to December 2012, Martinez and others conspired to use Marea Distributors and Logistics, LLC, in Louisiana and Marea Distributors, LLC, in Florida to fraudulently re-sell diverted pharmaceuticals. Working together, the defendants would collect dispensed drugs of known and unknown origin, counterfeit drugs, expired drugs, and drugs not authorized for resale and then fraudulently reintroduce them into the pre-retail, wholesale market for eventual sale under false pretenses to pharmacies and end users. Among other things, the defendants would create and scan fraudulent invoices and send them from Marea Distributors in Florida to Marea Distributors & Logistics in Louisiana by email. In Louisiana, Marea Distributors & Logistics would then send the fraudulent invoices by email from Louisiana to wherever the diverted pharmaceuticals were shipped. When necessary, Marea Distributors & Logistics in Louisiana would create invoices for the products and email them to customers who were making purchases.
