U.S. says 18 charged in illegal online pharmacy case

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Eighteen people have been indicted in California on racketeering and other charges for operating an Internet business that illegally sold prescription drugs, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday.

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Department officials said the 313-count indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in San Diego last week and unsealed on Thursday, charged the defendants with operating an online pharmaceutical distribution network known as Affpower in the United States and abroad.

The defendants included three physicians, two pharmacists, a pharmacy operator, an administrator, two recruiters of physicians and pharmacies, a credit card processor and eight affiliate Web site operators.

From August 2004 through June 2006, the network received more than 1 million Internet orders for prescription drugs, generating more than $126 million (62 million pounds) in revenues, the officials said.

According to the indictment, the network sold the drugs to customers who lacked prescriptions from a personal physician.

It paid doctors in the United States to issue prescriptions, based solely on health questionnaire answers the customers gave over the Internet. In some cases, doctors did not even review the prescriptions, the officials said.