LONG ISLAND, N.Y. (TCD) — A woman faces federal charges after allegedly obtaining misbranded weight loss drugs and Ozempic from out of the country and then selling them to followers on TikTok even though she wasn’t licensed to do so.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced Wednesday, May 1, that Isis Navarro Reyes, who also goes by Beraly Navarro, faces one count of smuggling, one count of receipt of misbranded drugs in interstate commerce and subsequent delivery thereof, three counts of dispensing prescription drugs without prescriptions, and one count of conspiracy to introduce and deliver for introduction a misbranded drug in interstate commerce. If convicted of smuggling, Reyes faces a maximum sentence of 20 years.
Between November 2022 and about January 2024, prosecutors allege Reyes “marketed, advertised, and sold various misbranded weight loss drugs that require a prescription” to followers on social media, including Ozempic, Mesofrance, and Axcion. Reyes allegedly acquired the drugs from Central and South America before selling them online, but they were not approved to be sold in the United State by the FDA. Reyes was apprehended on May 1.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Reyes’ alleged crimes caused “significant, life-threatening injuries to some victims and put all of her victims in harm’s way.”
Reyes reportedly posted many videos on TikTok from approximately November 2022 to November 2023. In her videos, Reyes allegedly discussed the weight loss drugs, told viewers how often to use them, and explained how to take or inject the drugs. She reportedly spoke about her experience, including the side effects and results.
According to prosecutors, in the videos, Reyes told viewers to contact her “via an encrypted messaging application on her cellphone” to order the drugs.
In July 2023, one of Reyes’ victims reportedly began developing lesions from Mesofrance and told the defendant about the injuries. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the victim’s doctor subsequently diagnosed the victim with a mycobacterium abscessus infection, “which is frequently caused by the contamination of medications, medical products, and medical devices with the mycobacterium abscessus bacterium.”
The New York Department of Health tested one of the vials of Mesofrance from Reyes and found that it contained mycobacterium abscessus, a “species of rapidly growing, multidrug-resistant, nontuberculous mycobacteria.”
Prosecutors said a law enforcement officer went undercover in December 2023 and messaged Reyes. They reportedly exchanged messages from December 2023 through January 2024 about Ozempic that Reyes was selling. In January, the undercover officer paid Reyes $375 via Zelle, and Reyes sent the officer Ozempic even though they didn’t have a prescription.
The undercover officer received the package on Jan. 12 in Manhattan, prosecutors said. Inside, the box reportedly contained what “purported to be Ozempic.” According to the U.S. attorney’s office, “All of the labeling accompanying the Ozempic in the UC Parcel was in Spanish, in violation of FDA regulations.”
Williams commented, “Recently, public interest in semaglutide and weight loss drugs has skyrocketed, and criminals have sought to take advantage of this interest for their ends. With this, the first misbranding and adulteration charges brought pertaining to Ozempic, Reyes will be held accountable for her conduct, and criminals should think twice before trying to sell weight loss drugs without a license to do so.”
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Was the TikToker aware of the risks associated with illegally selling prescription drugs like Ozempic, or did she naively believe she could do so without consequences?