US internet pharmacy ring: Indian doctor gets 30 yrs in jail

A graduate student from India, who organised an illegal internet pharmacy network, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Akhil Bansal, 29, a doctor studying for a business degree at Temple University, ran a network with his family that smuggled 11 million prescription pills from India and distributed them to 60,000 Americans, prosecutors said.

"You distributed poison throughout the country," US District Judge Paul Diamond told Bansal in court yesterday. Bansal maintained his innocence.

"Truly in my heart, I believe I did not commit these serious charges," he said. He said he plans an appeal.

The family operated a wholesale pharmacy network, supplying dozens of illegal online pharmacies, offering Viagra, sedatives and painkillers without a prescription, prosecutors said. The Bansals shipped as many as 75,000 pills a day from a New York safe house, reaping about $8 million, they said.

Bansal faced a 20-year minimum mandatory sentence and a guideline range of 30 years to life.

Most of the others charged struck plea deals and received sentences of less than three years.