Pair Plead Guilty to Federal Conspiracy Charge

Abingdon, VIRGINIA – A pair of men from India, who made cold calls to the United States for the purpose of selling versions of pharmaceutical drugs illegal in the United States, including controlled substances, pleaded guilty today in the United States District Court in Abingdon to federal conspiracy charges, Acting United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle announced.

Alok Kailashnath Jaiswal, 32, of Azangarh, India and Rahil Parvez Mir, 25, of Mumbai, India, waived their rights to be indicted today and each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States. Specially, to illegally distribute controlled substances, to fraudulently and knowingly import into the United States any merchandise contrary to law, and, to introduce into interstate commerce a drug that was misbranded, with the intent to defraud and mislead.

Jaiswal and Mir made cold calls from India to individuals in the United States to solicit orders for versions of pharmaceutical drugs, including controlled substances, which were not approved for sale in the United States. The defendants then obtained payment, typically via wire transfer, from the United States purchasers and illegally shipped the drugs to recipients in the United States.

A law enforcement officer, working in an undercover capacity in the Western District of Virginia, made several purchases from Jaiswal and Mir. The substances shipped included acetaminophen with codeine (Schedule III), diclofenac (Schedule IV), lorazepam (Schedule IV), human growth hormone, sildenafil and tadalafil.