Organized Heists of Meds and Baby Formula Soar

(May 10) -- Organized gangs are stealing millions of dollars worth of prescription drugs, baby formula and over-the-counter medication from trucks, rail cars, shipping containers and warehouses. And as the thefts are increasing, so too are the risks to public health.

Security experts from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and elsewhere say they're worried about the contraband being not only contaminated by mishandling but also mixed and sold with counterfeit drugs.

"There have been several cases where patients experienced adverse reactions from stolen drugs, reactions that were most likely due to improper storage and handling. We do not want to see this increase in thefts continue," Michael Chappell, FDA's acting assistant commissioner for regulatory affairs wrote last week in a letter to manufacturers, wholesalers and trade associations warning them to take precautions to protect their goods.

Here are just a few of the pharmaceutical diversions reported by the FDA this year:

• Johnson & Johnson is working with the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations and other law enforcement officials to recover cases of retail consumer health care and nutritional products -- everything from Benadryl to Zyrtec -- stolen in mid-April from a truck en route from Tobyhanna, Pa., to a retailer in Michigan.

• On March 14, Eli Lilly and Co. reported one of the largest known drugs thefts after cases of antidepressants and antipsychotics were stolen from a Lilly distribution center in Enfield, Conn. The thieves cut through a warehouse roof, rappelled down and loaded a large truck with purloined goods before fleeing. Police said Lilly valued the drugs at about $75 million.

• On March 13, cases of Mead Johnson Nutrition's infant formula products were stolen from a truck stop in Richwood, Ky. Mead Johnson has been hit several times, said the FDA, citing almost 5,000 cases of baby formula also stolen from an Ohio truck stop in November and another 6,000 cases from a Newton, Ill., truck stop in January.

• On March 3, $400,000 worth of generic over-the-counter products was stolen from a truck near Dallas. The shipment, which included the hair growth treatment minoxidil, smoking-cessation nicotine gum, vitamins and nutritional supplements, was en route from Perrigo Co. in Michigan to an H-E-B grocery chain warehouse in San Marcos, Texas.

It's not just the cargo movers and warehouses being targeted. Last year, Florida police busted 21 people for stealing millions of dollars worth of baby formula -- at $25 to $46 a can -- off the shelves of grocery, drug, big box and discount stores in four Florida counties. According to police statements at the time, the thieves nabbed by "Operation Hot Milk" had changed the expiration dates on many of the cans before selling them at flea markets and on eBay.

Some of the stolen products are sent to Central and South America, Africa and Asia, with U.S. Customs agents sometimes intercepting the shipments. But more frequently, investigators say, nefarious middle men will offer pilfered or bogus formula and medication on numerous and rapidly changing websites for half or less than what stores charge for the real stuff.

One recent bust took on such an operation working out of a meat export business in New York City. Federal investigators say the ring's websites claimed to be selling the "highest quality Canadian drugs," but no proof of that provenance was found.

The best intervention is to prevent these thefts from occurring in the first place, FDA said in its letter to companies involved with making, shipping or selling the targeted goods.

"Firms engaged in providing medical products and infant formula to the public have a fundamental responsibility to continuously review their warehouse physical security and security practices and procedures for transporting products to ensure that measures are in place to minimize the risk of theft," Chappell wrote.

To many security experts, the greatest concern about these thefts revolves around the fact that stolen products, once reintroduced into the legitimate supply chain, are often mingled with counterfeit products or products with improperly extended expiration dates.

"Say I steal 250 bottles of an AIDS drug but sell 500 bottles into the market, with the additional bottles being counterfeit or relabeled with an extended expiration date," explains Benjamin England, a former FDA special agent and FDA regulatory counsel. "The stolen product acts as cover for the counterfeit or expired product."

England told AOL News he saw this quite frequently when he was a federal investigator in Miami investigating well-organized criminal operations.

Another concern that has persisted for a number of years is that criminal organizations would conclude there was less risk to life and liberty if they stole or counterfeited (or both) prescription drugs and infant formula rather than engaged in their ordinary courses of illegal business.

The profit margins from these drug diversions are huge, producing a comparatively big illegal gain when set against the costs of the operation. The sentences, if perpetrators are found guilty, are lower than for illicit drug distribution and the business is far less dangerous, England said.

"It did not take long for criminals to increase their stakes in that activity and reduce their involvement in cocaine or heroin," added England, who now represents companies before the FDA through his law firm and consulting practice.