04/08/2003 - Updated 10:20 PM ET

Illegal mailed drugs seized
By Julie Appleby, USA TODAY

Shipments of prescription drugs into the United States from all over the world amount to about 10 million packages a year, according to a recent FDA estimate. But even the FDA admits its numbers are just a guess. The total could be far higher.

So many medications are pouring into the USA from overseas, they say, that it's overwhelming some mail facilities, stretching inspectors whose main focus since Sept. 11 has been anti-terrorism.

Shipments arriving daily at the mail facilities are not just orders by senior citizens struggling to buy heart medication. Many packages contain banned or restricted drugs. Some contain antibiotics, which when taken indiscriminately can fuel antibiotic resistance.

A day's haul at the Dulles international mail facility outside Washington, D.C., last week netted about 20 packages containing drugs, including Valium-like products, which are restricted because they are addictive, painkiller Phenobarbital, also restricted, and kits for growing marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Some packages of pills are sent through — if they're in small amounts and don't appear to be banned or restricted substances.

Packages containing restricted drugs are seized, requiring paperwork by Customs and FDA agents. A letter is sent to the addressee. Few try to pick up the packages, says Hal Zager, chief inspector for the Customs and Border Protection unit at Dulles.

Inspectors find the packages as they look for other contraband, using radiation detectors and X-ray machines. Unclaimed packages are eventually destroyed. The Dulles mail facility — one of 14 nationwide that inspect international mail — burns about 200 to 300 drug-containing packages a month, Zager says.