A South Florida grand jury has charged five additional defendants for their alleged roles in a sophisticated scheme to purchase and distribute millions of dollars in diverted pharmaceutical drugs. A total of 14 defendants have now been charged in this case. The Second Superseding Indictment returned on June 10, 2021, charges South Florida residents Stephen Manuel Costa, 37, Leah Solomon, 51, Rafael Angel Romero, 50, Ruben Reynaldo Rodriguez Diaz, 43, and Phoenix, Arizona resident David Ramirez Garcia, Sr., 58, with money laundering, mail fraud and violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act. It is alleged these defendants and their earlier charged co-conspirators purchased large quantities of diverted pharmaceutical drugs on the unregulated, underground market at a cost well below normal wholesale prices. Then, they used seemingly legitimate wholesale companies and fraudulent paperwork to introduce the diverted drugs back into the legitimate marketplace by selling them to unwitting pharmacies and consumers at big mark-ups, it is alleged. According to the Second Superseding Indictment, the operation was so large that co-conspirators purchased two wholesale pharmaceutical companies and chartered a plane to deliver the drugs. See also prior press release at https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdfl/pr/two-ceos-wholesale-pharmaceutical-companies-and-two-owners-bank-accounts-used-money.
