Indian Sentenced In US For $3.5mn Drug Smuggling Conspiracy

A 34 year-old Manish Kumar has been sentenced to 87 months in prison for operating a pharmacy that sold unapproved prescription drugs and controlled substances, including opioids, and shipped them from Asia into the US.

New York, Jan 21 (IANS) A 34 year-old Indian has been sentenced to 87 months in prison for operating a pharmacy that sold unapproved prescription drugs and controlled substances, including opioids, and shipped them from Asia into the US.

NEW YORK, NY— Fewer frazzled parents will deal with the hassle of closing up strollers when they board MTA buses, officials said Tuesday. An open strollers pilot program will expand to 1,000 city buses, or roughly one-sixth the entire fleet, in the coming weeks, said Frank Annicaro, NYC Transit’s senior vice president of buses.

“Overwhelmingly positive” feedback from riders and bus drivers on the pilot’s first phase prompted officials’ to decide to expand, Annicaro said.

“We have no reported incidents related to open strollers on our pilot buses,” he said.

Passengers have long had to fold strollers before they could board the city’s often-cramped buses.

The federal court in Boston ordered Manish Kumar ro pay a fine of $100,000 and sentenced him to more than seven years in prison and three months of supervised release, a statement by US attorney office, Massachusetts, said.

Kumar was a partner in Mihu Business Solutions Pvt, Ltd — a Mumbai-based drug company which he operated through multiple entities, including “All Herb Distributors”, “365 Life Group”, and “Health Life 365 Co”.

From at least 2015 until 2019, he used these entities to ship millions of illegal and unapproved prescription pills into the US to individuals who did not have prescriptions, the statement said.

He trafficked prescription drugs, including generic erectile dysfunction drugs, and Schedule II controlled substances, such as hydrocodone, oxycodone and tapentadol, and Schedule IV controlled substances, such as tramadol.

Kumar’s operation directly marketed drugs to customers in the US through advertising and calls to prospective customers from call centers in India.

As part of the conspiracy, he personally directed and managed shipments of drugs from drug suppliers in Singapore and India into Massachusetts and other