US Federal court dismisses man with counterfeit Viagra
A man charged with possession of 4000 tablets of counterfeit Viagra was dismissed by the US Federal Court due to the lack of evidential and investigative records.
The case against Dai Xiao Jun, an employee of a travel agency was dropped by the government. The US District Court Chief Judge Alex R Munson ordered the Marshal's office to release him from custody at the earliest as the evidences and reports gathered so far were insufficient for a trial.
According to the allegations made by the prosecution bench, the Customs and Border Protection Mail Facility in San Francisco , California intercepted a package that contained 4000 fake viagra tablets on June 12 2005 . The mail was adrresed to Mr. Jun, who resided in the Saipan area.
Special agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Postal Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, CNMI Customs, and Department of Labor delivered the package to Jus' residence on June 25 2005 . Then they conducted a thorough search of his apartment without producing a warrant and got hold of some quantity of marijuana too.
Mr. Jun was charged with illegal possession and trafficking with intentions to dole out the counterfeit ED drug Viagra among the masses. Viagra is a tablet meant for people with erectile dysfunction. Even the labels were cleverly duplicated.
Robert Torres, the counsel of Mr. Jun defended that as the search was illegal, the evidences should be suppressed. He strongly pointed out that there was enough time for the enforcement team to attain a search warrant. According to the stringent laws of the state on issuing warrant before a search operation, the evidences should be suppressed. Owing to the great emphasis on the legal structure on privacy issue, the government was forced to drop the case.
Source: Saipantimes, January 18, 2006 |
