Phony Web Druggists Plead Guilty

Two Florida men have pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges of operating an Internet pharmacy that banked more than $1 million selling phony Viagra and other bogus drugs.

In court documents, authorities said the rogue pharmacy sold a wide variety of unapproved medicines, sometimes in deadly combinations that a legitimate pharmacy would have warned against.

The case is part of a government crackdown on illegal online pharmacies, which have spawned countless Web sites and flooded e-mail boxes with unsolicited messages.

Prosecutors say Charles Naron, of Lake Worth, Fla., and Stephen Lewis, of Boyton Beach, Fla., acknowledged their pharmacy brought in more than $1 million selling drugs they falsely told buyers came from reputable Mexican pharmacies and were legal to import.

Authorities say Lewis's daughter, Pamela, who worked in the Internet business, also pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy and criminal forfeiture.

Court documents say the illegal pharmacy worked with a Bahamas warehouse that shipped the drugs using an express service.

The Food and Drug Administration has warned such purchases could prove dangerous or worthless. It's illegal to sell prescription drugs without a prescription.

Tests of pills seized in this investigation found that some had too much of the active ingredient in Viagra.

Naron is scheduled to be sentenced April 18 in U.S. District Court in downtown San Diego, and the Lewises on May 16.

The charges carry a maximum 20-year sentence.

According to court documents, Naron and Lewis started their Web pharmacy several years ago and eventually hooked up with Mark Kolowich, a San Diego man who was sentenced to four years in prison a week ago.

Kolowich's illegal operation sold more than $6 million worth of what he called "generic" Viagra and other drugs in 2003, prosecutors said.

Pfizer Inc. holds the patents for Viagra in the United States, and there is no approved generic version of the drug.