Arizona man sentenced to more than 3 years in federal prison for trafficking in counterfeit pet pharmaceutical products

WASHINGTON — An Arizona man was sentenced Monday to serve 37 months in federal prison for trafficking pet products with counterfeit labels into the United States.

This sentence was announced by the following agency heads: Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson of the Southern District of Texas; Special Agent in Charge E. Spencer Morrison of the Food and Drug Administration’s 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 Office.

Allen Smith, 50, of Phoenix, Arizona, was sentenced Feb. 6 by U.S. District Judge David Hittner of the Southern District of Texas. In addition to his prison term, Smith was 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 products included Merial Pharmaceutical Company (Merial) manufactured-products Frontline and Frontline Plus and others Bayer manufactured, such as Advantage and K9 Advantix products. 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 for and approved for sale in the United States.

The FDA-OCI, HSI and the EPA investigated this case. 

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