Pak national jailed for 20 years for drug trafficking in US

Washington, Feb 5: A Pakistani national in the US was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment on charges of drug trafficking violations.

52-year-old Muhammad Aijaz Sarfraz was found guilty by a jury in a federal court on May 14 and was sentenced to 240 months imprisonment on February 3 in Texas. According to evidence presented during the trial, between March 2009 and April 2012, Sarfraz operated numerous illegal websites through which he distributed millions of illicit drug to Internet customers throughout the United States.

Those pills included popular prescription medications such as OxyContin, Percocet, Adderall, Ritalin, Hydrocodone, Xanax, Valium, Ambien, and others. The counterfeit drugs were generally manufactured in China, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, and Hong Kong, US Attorney John M Bales, said.

The pills, which were made to look like authentic prescription medications approved for use in the United States, often contained incorrect active pharmaceutical ingredients or the wrong quantity and dosage strength of those substances.

No physicians or medical professionals of any kind were involved at any stage of the drug distribution process. It is estimated that the criminal enterprise may have generated as much as USD 100 million or more in proceeds between 2009 and 2012. Sarfraz was indicted by a federal grand jury on April 12, 2012, a media release said.

PTI