U. S. Customs seize fake erectile dysfunction pills

BEHIND BARS: FELON WHO TRAFFICKED IN FAKE DRUGS FOR ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION ORDERED TO PAY $3.6 MILLION IN RESTITUTION A former electrician and Uber driver, 55-year-old Stefen Knoche, stands to

be imprisoned for many years after he pleaded guilty to trafficking in counterfeit erectile dysfunction drugs: Viagra, Levitra, Cialis and Aurogra, which is a generic. The Pennsylvanian

admitted to authorities last year that he received vast sums of the fake drugs — including counterfeit Valium and Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication — from an overseas contact who called

himself Alex. The defendant shipped the fakes on to purchasers, some of them repeat customers. In April, he was slapped with a prison term of five years and 10 months and ordered to pay $3.6

million in restitution. CO-CONSPIRATOR SENT AN EMAIL In a letter to the judge, Knoche said Alex first reached out to him in an email seeking help. Alex said his India-based company sold

cellphones, laptops and GoPro cameras on some of the best-known online retailers. It's expensive to send products from India and China, Knoche quoted Alex as saying. Alex said that he

would send products and the names and addresses of people in the U.S. who were to receive them and that Knoche should send them onward. At some point Alex started sending Knoche pills, one

called Black Rhino and others that were “some type of ED pill.” Alex said he had a contract to ship Viagra, Cialis and other drugs from overseas, Knoche wrote. KNEW RIGHT FROM WRONG "It

was a stupid thing to do,” the defendant said in his letter. “As time went on I realized that what I was doing wasn't legit." Court records show the crimes lasted about a year,

until April 2018. Records also show the restitution is owed to the drug companies whose trademarks were stolen in the case. Knoche owes $1.99 million to Eli Lilly for trafficking in

counterfeit Cialis; more than $1 million to Bayer AG for shipping fake Levitra; nearly $600,000 to Pfizer Pharmaceuticals for sending on the fake Viagra, Aurogra and Xanax; and more than

$10,000 to Roche Holding/Genentech, for shipping the phony Valium. (The drug company that now markets Viagra is Viatris, Pfizer says.) Knoche's lawyer, Ann E. Ariano, said Thursday she

was not able to comment on the case. She had asked that Knoche be put on probation or sentenced to a term of home confinement. She said that Knoche has ankylosing spondylitis — a rheumatoid

arthritis of the spine — and that he felt his life would be both threatened and shortened if he were imprisoned for a long time. Today, Knoche is incarcerated at the federal prison in Fort

Dix, New Jersey, with a provisional release date of May 2026, the Bureau of Prisons says.