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U.S. Prescription Drug System Under Attack Multibillion-Dollar Shadow Market
Is Growing Stronger
By Gilbert M. Gaul and Mary Pat Flaherty Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 19, 2003

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SUCCESS123.COM
Carl D. Roberts insists all he wanted to do was help people. After his wife
was hit by a drunk driver, he set up a Web site in his home in Powell,
Tenn., to find innovative drugs for treating brain injuries. But his site
turned into something entirely different, federal prosecutors maintain.
According to court records, success123.com (also known as the Mail Order
Pharmacy) was a portal for customers seeking OxyContin. For as much as $500,
subscribers could purchase "gold" and "deluxe" memberships that provided
exclusive access to suppliers in Mexico, the Netherlands and elsewhere.
Roberts pleaded guilty to dispensing controlled substances in September 2002
and was sentenced to 57 months.
Aiding Roberts with his site were others he met online.
Frank N. Assaf Jr. had connections to a Mexican pharmacist who supplied him
with thousands of OxyContin tablets. Gold members e-mailed orders to Assaf.
Between 2000 and 2002, he received about $2.1 million. Assaf kept cash in
two safes at his Tucson home and in bank accounts under aliases, including
one in Riga, Latvia. In a November 2002 raid, agents found 50,200 pills,
ampules and tablets at the house. According to Assaf's computer inventory,
two customers had spent more than $50,000 and 22 had spent more than
$20,000. In August, Assaf pleaded guilty to illegally distributing OxyContin
and was sentenced to 44 months.

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http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/6610139.htm
Posted on Mon, Aug. 25, 2003
RUBÉN ROSARIO: Mandatory sentences don't always fit crime
RUBÉN ROSARIO
Pioneer Press Columnist

Marvin Rooney's stock image of the American drug offender was that of the gun toting, gang-banging, inner-city thug.

But that entrenched perception is being radically revised since the retired 3M manager's 32-year-old daughter got ensnared in an illegal online drug distribution ring.

Jae M. Rooney, a registered nurse and mother of a 7-year-old girl, was sentenced July 15 to a mandatory minimum 46-month federal prison term for her role in a drug scheme that netted $2.2 million through the illegal sale of Oxycontin, the powerful prescription painkiller that has become a popular nightclub and rave party drug.

Rooney, a man who admits to strong conservative views, now finds himself on the same side as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and others in criticizing the injustice of mandatory minimum drug laws as well as the potential abuse of prosecutorial discretion.

What has also rattled Rooney's views on law and justice is that his daughter, a first-time offender who played a minor role in the drug operation, is serving more time than one of the ring's masterminds.

"Convicting and incarcerating nonviolent people who may have played minor or administrative roles in crimes makes no sense,'' Rooney said in letters sent to President George Bush, Sen. Norm Coleman, Attorney General John Ashcroft, and other officials.

Jae Rooney fits the profile of a good number of drug offenders serving time in American federal prisons.

The Stillwater native moved to Oklahoma a decade ago. She entered nursing school — a lifelong dream — three years ago.

A nursing college instructor, aware of Rooney's computer skills, passed along a part-time job tip to help a Tennessee-based doctor running an online service.

"It was described to me as a support group for pain sufferers interested in learning about pain medication and homeopathic remedies,'' Rooney said Friday from a county jail facility in Tennessee. "I sent out e-mails and letters to people and set up passwords for those who wanted to become bulletin members.''

The man, identified by authorities as Carl David Roberts, actually was using the online site as a front to sell Oxycontin over the Internet, with help from a distributor in California and Frank Assaf Jr., an Arizona resident who authorities said "brought business capital and acumen'' to the drug-selling scheme.

Assaf, according to federal authorities, set up an elaborate security system to evade law enforcement, established an offshore company to hide some of the ill-gotten gains, and developed a payment and banking system by which customers could pay for the drugs online.

Rooney, who had made about $500 a month for the online work, occasionally assisted Roberts after she graduated in March 2001 and went to work at a doctor's office.

On Dec. 11, 2002, she answered a knock on her door. She was greeted by FBI agents who informed her of the drug scheme and Roberts' arrest. They asked to take her computer.

"I said, sure why not?'' Rooney said. "I told them what I knew about Roberts.''

Eight days later, she learned she had been indicted on federal drug conspiracy charges, along with a California woman and Assaf, a man she said she didn't know even existed.

On advice of her lawyer, she agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges in return for her cooperation. There was an understanding that she would serve about 24 months.

"They threatened to charge me with 1,193 counts for every e-mail I sent out,'' Rooney said. "The prosecutor kept saying that I was a nurse and that I couldn't be that stupid and naive. But I honestly trusted this person. I made a huge error in judgment.''

Prosecutors withdrew the downward departure after learning that Rooney confessed to her employer that she had been stealing Demerol from office supplies to control depression and suicidal tendencies.

"I basically wanted to kill myself because I really thought that my daughter would be better off telling people that her mother was dead instead of in jail,'' she said.

Roberts pleaded guilty and got 57 months. The California distributor got 24 months. Assaf, whose Tucson home served as a sophisticated inventory and warehouse for more than 50,000 Oxycontin tablets, got 44 months in prison.

Justice Department officials refused to make the Washington-based prosecutor, Barbara Wells, or anyone else available for an interview to discuss the handling of the case.

Marvin Rooney says he has spent $35,000 in legal costs so far and will likely spend thousands more in an appeal of his daughter's sentencing.

As for McKenzie, Jae Rooney's daughter, "we've prepared her as best as we can about her mother's absence.

"I think the just thing should have been to give her something like a suspended sentence,'' he added. "Even if it wasn't intentional, there should be some accountability. But this is grossly unfair and an abuse. It's opened my eyes to how the government can work and who's also in our prisons.''

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