MIAMI
Three more Miami-area residents were recently sentenced to prison for the multi-million-dollar theft of retail products, including Mucinex cough medicine and $550,000 worth of Similac baby formula, as well as other items, authorities said Friday.
A total of eight defendants have been convicted in connection with the theft scheme, officials said.
The three – Jorge Nimer Rolo, 48, Lazaro Martinez, a/k/a “Fat Laz,” 45, and Antonio Ramirez, a/k/a “Tony Bodega,” 54, – were recently sentenced to prison.
“FDA sets high quality standards for the safety and nutritional quality of infant formulas because these products are consumed during a critical time in a child’s development; once this product is diverted from the protected supply chain, consumers can no longer be assured of its safety or wholesomeness,” said David W. Bourne, Special Agent in Charge, FDA Office of Criminal Investigations’ Miami Field Office. “We will continue to protect the public health by bringing such criminals to justice.”
Evidence indicated the following, facts and circumstances, according to officials:
- As part of an organized theft ring, 44 pallets of Similac were stolen by the defendants and their co-conspirators from a distribution site in Fort Worth, Texas.
- More than 18,000 cases of Mucinex were pilfered from a tractor-trailer truck in Richland, Mississippi.
- These stolen good were then transported by members of the cargo theft ring to South Florida, stored in various locations.
- The goods were offered for sale to brokers and retailers in and around Miami-Dade County.
- The defendants worked together to sell and distribute the stolen cargo.
- The stolen products were originally intended for sale at Wal-Mart and Walgreens stores and other retailers in the Southeastern United States.
- Nimer Rolo was a broker who financed a range of stolen cargo in South Florida and elsewhere, including stolen baby formula, computers and electronics, perfume, and women’s lingerie, valued at more than $2.3 million, officials said.
U.S. District Judge Joan A. Lenard sentenced Rolo to nine years in prison on May 29, 2015.
Rolo pleaded guilty on March 18 to one count of conspiracy to receive and sell stolen goods valued at $5,000 or more, involving a pre-retail medical product, as well as one count of money laundering, involving a pre-retail medical product.
Martinez and Ramirez were brokers who obtained stolen product from others and sold portions of the stolen cargo.
Martinez was a co-owner of Tadeo Supermarket in Miami where stolen cargo was sold, and he acted as a buyer and re-seller of stolen cargo with others, including Ramirez.
Ramirez and Martinez pleaded guilty before
U.S. District Judge Robert N. Scola sentenced Ramirez to three years in prison on May 27.
On March 3, 2015, he plead guilty to a one count information charging conspiracy to receive and sell stolen goods valued at $5,000 or more.
Martinez was sentenced to 18 months’ behind bars on May 18.
The defendants were charged in connection with violations of the Safe Doses Act, which was passed by Congress in 2012. The law prohibits the theft of “pre-trial medical products,” officials said.
The Safe Doses Act prohibits the following offenses, according to officials:
1) Stealing, or obtaining by fraud or deception, any pre-retail medical product
2) Knowingly and falsely making, altering, forging, or counterfeiting the labeling or documentation of a pre-retail medical product
3) Knowingly possessing or transporting a stolen or fraudulently-obtained pre-retail medical product
4) Buying or otherwise obtaining an expired or stolen pre-retail medical product with intent to defraud.