U.S. Department of Justice Marcos Daniel Jiménez United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida
	99 N.E. 4th Street Miami, FL 33132 (305) 961-9001

SENTENCING IN DRUG PRESCRIPTION AND GUN CASES

Marcos Daniel Jiménez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; David Bourne, Special Agent-in-Charge, United States Food and Drug Administration; Lt. Art Loynez, Miami-Dade Police Department, Pharmaceutical Diversion Unit; and Julie Torres, Special Agent-in-Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced that Larry Stafford, 51, of Miami, was sentenced by District Court Judge Jose E. Martinez to 41 months imprisonment for illegal distribution of pharmaceuticals and making a false statement in connection with a gun purchase. Judge Martinez also imposed a three-year period of supervised release to follow Stafford’s incarceration. The sentence resulted from charges in two separate cases.

One case arose through a joint investigation by the United States Food and Drug Administration and Miami-Dade Police Department. It was discovered that Stafford and a co-defendant were paying Medicaid cancer and AIDS patients a few dollars for medications dispensed freely to them by Medicaid. These medications, which included Procrit, Combivir, Epivir, Trizavir, Ziagen, and Neupogen, among others, each cost from several hundred dollars to over a thousand dollars per bottle on the wholesale market. According to filed documents and statements made in court, Stafford and a co-defendant, who did not have licenses to sell prescription drugs, sold or offered to sell over $93,000.00 worth of prescription drugs to undercover agents on three separate occasions between July 29 and August 22, 2003. As a result, Stafford and a co-defendant were charged with conspiracy and with three separate counts of selling drugs without a license, a violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 331(t), 333(b)(1)(D) and 353(e)(2) (A).

The second case filed against Stafford charged him with making a false statement when attempting the purchase a firearm, a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 922(a)(6). On October 26, 2001, Stafford went into a gun shop in Miami and falsely stated on the required federal gun purchase form that he had never been convicted of a felony.

Mr. Jiménez commended the investigative efforts of the United States Food and Drug Administration; the Miami-Dade Police Department, Pharmaceutical Diversion Unit; and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. These cases were prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Diane Patrick and Carlos B. Castillo.

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