Illinois Man Sentenced to Serve 72 Months in Prison for Conspiring to Distribute Prescription Drugs Over the Internet

WASHINGTON—Michael P. Jackson, 40, of Carmi, Illinois, was sentenced today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to serve 72 months in prison for selling the prescription drug known as Adderall from 2009 to 2012 to a Florida woman who operated an illegal Internet-pharmacy business. Jackson also was sentenced to three years of supervised release.

According to the December 6, 2012 indictment, defendant Jackson supplied his co-defendant Lina Rodriguez with pills of Adderall, which contains amphetamine, a Schedule II controlled substance. As defendant Jackson was aware and intended, co-defendant Rodriguez resold the Adderall pills through an Internet business she owned and operated in southern Florida.

“This prosecution aims to curb the sale of dangerous drugs to United States citizens,” said Stuart F. Delery, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. “The controlled substance drugs allegedly sold by the defendants were not dispensed by U.S. licensed pharmacies and were not prescribed by any physician. Along with FDA, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and our other law enforcement partners, we will continue to protect our citizens from unsafe and potentially harmful drugs.”

Jackson pled guilty to the lead count of the indictment on March 11, 2013, which charged him and Rodriguez with conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute Adderall. Pursuant to his plea agreement, Jackson agreed not to oppose a judgment against him in the amount of $18,862, as gross proceeds of the offense to which he pleaded guilty. Rodriguez was sentenced to 72 months’ imprisonment on April 22, 2013.

The case was investigated by the Miami Field Office of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations; the Miami Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; and the Sacramento Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin J. Larsen of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and Perham Gorji, Trial Attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Branch.