Prosecutors: FedEx “Should Be Treated Just Like Any Other Drug Courier”

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avcpl

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Two years after federal prosecutors charged FedEx with being criminally complicit in the transporting of illegal drugs from online pharmacies, the case is finally going to trial. In this morning’s opening statements, lawyers for the Justice Department urged the court to not be swayed by the famous brand name on the side of the planes.

The 2014 grand jury indictment [PDF] accused FedEx of Conspiracy to Distribute Controlled Substances, Distribution of Controlled Substances, Conspiracy to Distribute Misbranded Drugs and Misbranding Drugs, alleging that the express-shipping giant had deliberately ignored obvious indicators that it was transporting drugs for illegal online pharmacies.

FedEx employees claimed to have raised concerns with FedEx management after incidents like pharmacy customers stopping trucks on the road near the delivery address, indicating that the recipient did not actually reside there. Some customers would actually jump onto the trucks, demanding delivery, while some drivers say they were threatened if they insisted on delivering to the address on the package.

Additionally, drivers complained about bringing pharmacy parcels to delivery addresses that were nothing more than parking lots, or schools, or vacant homes where multiple recipients would park outside waiting for deliveries.

Yet according to prosecutors, FedEx management, rather than cease doing business with these pharmacy shippers, “adopted a procedure whereby Internet pharmacy packages from problematic shippers were held for pick up at specific stations, rather than delivered to the recipient’s address.”

During this morning’s open arguments, the federal prosecutor asked the court to not be swayed by the “air of legitimacy” that the government contends allowed FedEx to continue carrying these drugs with impunity for so many years.

“This drug courier should be treated in this court just like your honor would treat every other drug courier,” said the prosecutor.

Continued:

https://consumerist.com/2016/06/13/...-be-treated-just-like-any-other-drug-courier/
 
Fed ex is just a tool. The fact they are being charged with any crime is ridiculous. If they charge fed ex, they should charge customs for allowing the packages through in the first place. This does not excuse the actions of some of the recipients though.
 
This will end with the gov taking its cut from the black market it creates in the form of a large fine. Just like the hundreds of millions of dollars in fines levied against Purdue Pharma for lying about the addictive potential of oxy. Just the government taking its cut of the dirty business and presenting it as some form of justice. What are they going to do put fed x in prison?
 
"Don't shoot the messenger?"

What about banks?
This 'logic' of this prosecution - once begun - could be theoretically never-ending in regards to finding people/companies/institutions to blame for drug traffic.

Better get a Grand Jury to look into various Churches - after all, God invented drugs, right? And they're clear affiliates of His.
 
Any smart place wouldn't use privately owned couriers to deliver products anyways. Considering they can simply open anything deemed suspicious without a warrant. Still crazy though. USPS brings in millions of times the amounts of drugs FedEx, DHL, or UPS does...
 
Help?!?! said:
Any smart place wouldn't use privately owned couriers to deliver products anyways. Considering they can simply open anything deemed suspicious without a warrant. Still crazy though. USPS brings in millions of times the amounts of drugs FedEx, DHL, or UPS does...
Click to expand...

QFT. It is staggering the amount of drugs that come through the mail. I remember when I was seventeen in pittsburgh I was getting pot shipped down from new york because the weed was cheaper and better there. It came through USPS.
 
I've always been too scared to have illegal stuff sent to me, buuuut it seems really easy to do, lol. The only thing I have had mailed is pods, Kratom, etizolam and phenibut. Soo all kinda legal, unfortunately the etizolam is no longer legal in my state and the one affordable trustworthy vendor will not ship etizolam to me, even tho I want clonazolam, which is legal in my state. Anyway, point being I wish I could get that shipped then I could cut off all my having to get from the street. I worry about Kratom getting scheduled as I always planned to use it when I get off subs, whenever that may be.
 
Screaming_Skull said:
I've always been too scared to have illegal stuff sent to me, buuuut it seems really easy to do, lol. The only thing I have had mailed is pods, Kratom, etizolam and phenibut. Soo all kinda legal, unfortunately the etizolam is no longer legal in my state and the one affordable trustworthy vendor will not ship etizolam to me, even tho I want clonazolam, which is legal in my state. Anyway, point being I wish I could get that shipped then I could cut off all my having to get from the street. I worry about Kratom getting scheduled as I always planned to use it when I get off subs, whenever that may be.
Click to expand...

Seriously? They're trying to ban Kratom now too?

Good grief.

Will they also try to criminalize Jenkem one of these days, I wonder?

/smh
 
wonder if this will have any broader implications on drugs being shipped to your door. more scrutiny. im sure drugs being shipped to your mailbox is kind of a big thing nowadays. with darknet and RCs im sure its a significant chunk of change.

didn't even know online pharmacies were a thing anymore. thought that ended at least a decade ago.

did love the hydro and benzo days of old where you said you back hurt or had panic attacks in the little box and had a BS questionnaire. early days of interweb drugs lol.

i think most people know that shipping drugs via fedex is one of less preferable couriers. standard USPS all the way dudes or you are doing it wrong!
 
SAN FRANCISCO • A criminal trial nearly two years in the making alleging FedEx knowingly delivered illegal prescription drugs to dealers and addicts ended suddenly Friday when prosecutors moved to dismiss all charges against the shipping giant.

U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco granted the request in a two-page order that did not indicate why prosecutors were dropping the case.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said it would have no comment on the decision.

FedEx was indicted in 2014, and the trial began on Monday.

In court on Friday, Breyer said FedEx was "factually innocent." He said the company repeatedly asked the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to give it the name of a customer that was shipping illegal drugs so it could stop working with the person, but the agency was either unwilling or unable to do so.

"The dismissal is an act, in the court's view, entirely consistent with the government's overarching obligation to seek justice even at the expense of some embarrassment," he said, according to a transcript of the hearing.

Prosecutors claimed Memphis, Tenn.-based FedEx began conspiring with two internet pharmacy organizations in the early 2000s to ship powerful sleep aids, sedatives, painkillers and other drugs to customers who had not been physically examined by a doctor.

The trial was unusual because of the government's decision to bring drug charges against a package delivery company and the lack of a settlement.

Rival UPS Inc. paid $40 million in 2013 to resolve similar allegations that arose from a government crackdown on Internet pharmacies that ship drugs to customers without valid prescriptions.

FedEx attorney Cristina Arguedas said the company did not reach any monetary settlement with the government in exchange for ending the case.

The crux of the government's case was that FedEx knew the drugs were illegal and headed for dealers and addicts, some of whom died. FedEx Corp. was charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, conspiracy to launder money and other counts.

FedEx said it only shipped what it believed were legal drugs from licensed pharmacies and that it helped investigators crack down on the two pharmacies that prosecutors say were involved in the scheme.

Breyer had asked prosecutors to present testimony from two DEA agents that FedEx said regularly talked to the company but never told it to stop shipping for any online pharmacies.

The agents, who were expected to testify Friday, were not on the government's witness list, Arguedas had said.

Rory Little, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, said the case against FedEx was "too big and too important" to not do perfectly.

"It's just very disturbing that this case could go on for as long as it did and then get dropped days into the trial," Little said.

The government's case encountered setbacks and a skeptical judge. The case was before Breyer, not a jury.

The judge in March dismissed numerous charges against FedEx after prosecutors named the wrong defendant in an agreement that gave authorities more time to file charges and not violate the statute of limitations.

FedEx spokesman Patrick Fitzgerald said in a statement Friday that the company has always been innocent and the case should never have been brought.

"The government should take a very hard look at how they made the tremendously poor decision to file these charges," he said. "Many companies would not have had the courage or the resources to defend themselves against false charges."


http://www.stltoday.com/business/lo...cle_9195de02-c543-53bb-ba21-e0b453efbdb6.html
 
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