New Jersey Man Pleads Guilty in Scheme to Traffic in Stolen Pharmaceutical Drugs

NEWARK, NJ—Luis Andres Faife-Ruiz admitted today to trafficking in pharmaceutical drugs originating from a shipment stolen from a Georgia truck stop, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Faife-Ruiz, 44, of Union City, N.J., pleaded guilty to an indictment charging him with one count of conspiracy to receive and sell stolen goods and one count of the receipt and attempted sale of stolen goods. The shipment of drugs, manufactured by sanofi-aventis, had an estimated wholesale value of $8.8 million.

According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court:

Faife-Ruiz admitted that he and his co-conspirators trafficked in stolen pharmaceutical drugs from July 2009 through October 2009. In October 2009, he and his co-conspirators negotiated the sale of a sanofi-aventis shipment, stolen from a Georgia truck stop on July 9, 2009, to a buyer in New Jersey. The stolen shipment was driven from Florida to New Jersey on October 14, 2009, where Faife-Ruiz and his co-conspirator, Amed Rey Parra, 36, of Miami Lakes, Fla., met the drivers at a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. Later that afternoon, a co-conspirator turned the stolen shipment over to the buyer for inspection. The FBI seized the shipment before Faife-Ruiz and his co-conspirators could complete the sale of the stolen pharmaceutical drugs, which included Xyzal, Nasacort AQ, Benzaclin Gel, and Lovenox.

The conspiracy charge to which Faife-Ruiz pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. The receipt and attempted sale of stolen property count carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for July 12, 2011.

United States Attorney Paul J. Fishman praised special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Ward, for the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacey A. Levine of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Health Care and Government Fraud Unit in Newark.

Defense counsel: Samuel R. De Luca, Esq., Jersey City, N.J.