MANHATTAN – The Drug Enforcement Administration charged 21 citizens of the Dominican Republic with impersonating U.S. law enforcement officers, extortion and wire fraud, according to the federal indictment, which was unsealed today.
The defendants’ prescription-drug scam netted them $880,000 in the United States. The defendants and others who participated in this scheme and copy-cat schemes had demanded at least $3.5 million, the DEA states.
Dominican Republic authorities arrested 17 of the defendants in the Dominican Republic who are now awaiting extradition proceedings in that country, DEA officials stated in a press release.
Four defendants remain at large, officials said.
Basically, the defendants targeted people who they believed had illegally purchased prescription drugs through call centers located in the Dominican Republic, the DEA stated.
The defendants would call victims in U.S. and identify themselves as a DEA or representative of another U.S. agency, DEA official stated.
The victim would then be told that he or she was under investigation for illegally purchasing prescription drugs, and that the only way to avoid arrest and jail would be to pay a “fine” or some other fee to the DEA, officials stated.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “These defendants generated untold millions of dollars in illicit profits by posing as DEA Agents or other U.S. law enforcement officers. They carried out the internet or telephone equivalent of displaying phony badges to rip off their victims. In the process, the defendants assaulted the good name of the DEA. We commend the DEA for putting a stop to this criminal charade.”