Officials Raid 3 Stores in Effort to Curb Unlicensed Medicine Sales

A task force of undercover officers raided three northeast San Fernando Valley stores Friday looking for illegal pharmaceuticals, but found only small quantities of banned or controlled substances.

Despite the small seizure, the problem of illegal pharmaceuticals being sold by people with no medical expertise is huge, health care officials say.

Profits in the illegal trade can be substantial. A raid at two of the same stores last March netted health and law enforcement agents more than $1 million in contraband, a county investigator said.

Two women were arrested Friday in shops in Van Nuys and Arleta that specialize in products from El Salvador.

Authorities said Carmen Casteneda, 35, of Canoga Park was booked on a charge of possession of controlled substances with the intent to sell, a felony. Sylvia Cortez, 49, of North Hollywood was booked on misdemeanor possession of illegal pharmaceuticals, police officials said. They will be arraigned next week.

A search of a third Van Nuys shop turned up nothing, officers said.

Among the items confiscated were a pain reliever that contains Metamizol, an ingredient that significantly decreases white blood cells; anabolic steroids; contraceptives; and topical creams that could cause rashes or other skin ailments.

“Metamizol can affect one’s ability to fight off infections,” said Monette Cuevas, a pharmacist for Los Angeles County. “All kinds of things can go wrong with steroids.”

The two stores, plus a third one, are owned by Santa Hernandez, who was arrested in an identical raid last year and is serving a two-year sentence for possession of controlled substances for sale, police said.

The illegal pharmaceutical trade has seen store owners acting like doctors, health experts say.

Last year an 18-month-old girl in Orange County died just hours after being injected with a mixture of what is believed to be penicillin and eucalyptus by the owner of a Tustin gift shop.

The Health and Law Enforcement Task Force was organized in May 1998 with officers from the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the county Department of Health Services. The task force’s investigations have resulted in 200 arrests, said Todd Sample, a senior investigator for the county health department.

Many immigrants, especially those in the United States illegally, fear going to licensed medical facilities or find American health care too expensive, experts say.

County health officials are working on an outreach program to counteract the illegal pharmaceutical trade, said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, the director of public health and health officer for the county.

“The message we want to send is: Keep your family safe, and get right diagnosis and get right medication,” said Fielding. “We also want to make sure they’re aware of county health care system.”

County medical facilities do not ask patients whether they are in the country legally, county officials said.