Miami Man Gets 12 Years In Prison For Prescription Drug Scheme

May 19, 2008 Monday 5:07 AM EST

LENGTH: 312 words

HEADLINE: MIAMI MAN GETS 12 YEARS IN PRISON FOR PRESCRIPTION DRUG SCHEME

BYLINE: US States News

DATELINE: TALLAHASSEE, Fla.

The office of the Florida Attorney General issued the following news release:

Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that a Miami-Dade man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for his involvement in a prescription drug fraud scheme. Jose Antonio Grillo previously pleaded guilty to orchestrating a scheme through which he purchased prescription medications and replaced the drugs' labels with counterfeited labels, making the drugs appear to be of a stronger concentration, therefore worth more on the black market. Grillo was prosecuted by the Attorney General's Office of Statewide Prosecution.

Grillo, 50, was initially arrested in Miami based on an indictment issued by a Statewide Grand Jury in July 2003. Investigators discovered that Grillo purchased pharmaceuticals over a two-year period of time and altered their labels, then sold the drugs to illegal wholesalers at an enormous profit. By the time his scheme was discovered, nearly 11,000 boxes, or 50,000 doses had been sold into the stream of commerce and had to be recalled. Much of the medicine was intended for treatment of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and patients who had undergone organ transplants. The investigation was a joint effort by the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Miami-Dade Police Department, and the Florida Department of Health's Bureau of Pharmacy Services.

Grillo pleaded guilty earlier this month to the charges of organized scheme to defraud, conspiracy to commit racketeering, numerous charges of buying and selling pharmaceutical products without a license, product tampering, and selling counterfeit products. He was sentenced by the Honorable Marisa Tinkler-Mendez of Eleventh Judicial Circuit. Grillo has been in Miami-Dade County Jail since his arrest in 2003.

Contact: Sandi Copes, 850/245-0150.

LOAD-DATE: May 20, 2008