Arizona Man Sentenced for Trafficking in Pet Products with Counterfeit Labels

HOUSTON - An Arizona man was sentenced today to serve 37 months in prison for trafficking in pet products with counterfeit labels into the United States.

U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson, Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Special Agent in Charge E. Spencer Morrison of the Food and Drug Administration – Office of Criminal Investigations (FDA-OCI) Kansas City, Kansas, Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Mark Dawson of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations’ (ICE-HSI) Houston Field Office made the announcement.

U.S. District Judge David Hittner of the Southern District of Texas sentenced Allen Smith, 50, of Phoenix, Arizona, today. Smith was also ordered to pay $867,150 in restitution and to forfeit $42,269 worth of illicit proceeds.

According to admissions made in connection with his plea, Smith was responsible for aiding and abetting the trafficking of more than $1 million worth of veterinary products that were not manufactured for the U.S. market into the United States for distribution under false labels. These included Merial Pharmaceutical Company (Merial) manufactured-products Frontline and Frontline Plus and others Bayer manufactured, such as Advantage and K9 Advantix. Smith intentionally trafficked in the products to deceive retail stores and consumers into believing that the products had received necessary Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authorization to be manufactured and approved for sale in the United States.

The FDA-OCI, HSI and the EPA investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Lowery of the Southern District of Texas and Assistant Deputy Chief John H. Zacharia of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) are prosecuting the case. The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California and the CCIPS Cybercrime Lab provided significant assistance.