September 25, 2007
Indictment Charges a Chinese Drug Manufacturer and Three Others with International HGH Trafficking
$3.4 Million Seized from Chinese Banks in New York
SEP 25  -- 
A federal grand jury in Rhode Island has charged a Chinese corporation, Genescience Pharmaceutical Company, its CEO,
 Lei Jin , and three other men with international smuggling of Human Growth Hormone. The defendants allegedly used Internet Web sites and e-mail to facilitate the smuggling of HGH under the company's brand name, Jintropin. The U.S. government has also seized money traced to the alleged smuggling - about $3.4 million - from New York branches of two Chinese banks.
June W. Stansbury, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in New England ,United States Attorney Robert Clark Corrente, Terry Vermillion, Director of the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations, , Joanne Yarbrough, Chief Inspector of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and Douglas A. Bricker, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, jointly announced a sixteen-count indictment, which the grand jury returned on September 19 in U.S. District Court, Providence.
The indictment is part of a nationwide investigation known as 
Operation Raw Deal , which has focused on international smuggling of HGH and anabolic steroids, illegal distribution of the pharmaceuticals, and on home laboratories in which steroids are converted from powder into usable forms. Federal indictments and arrests throughout the country over the past several days were announced simultaneously today in Rhode Island, San Diego, Pennsylvania, New York, and elsewhere.
"Over the past two years, federal law enforcement has taken aim at a multi-headed beast," U.S. Attorney Corrente said. "Now, thanks to hard work by agents in the field and prosecutors in the grand jury, felony charges have been brought against one of the root sources of these illegal pharmaceuticals and against individuals who allegedly distribute them."
Charged in the federal indictment in Rhode Island, in addition to Jin and the company, are: 
Jeffrey Rock , of Camarillo, California,
 Ander Jaa , of Shanghai, China, and 
David Garcia , who is believed to be in Slovenia. Jin, a lawful permanent U.S. resident with an address in Madison, Wisconsin, is believed to be living in Shanghai.
A task force led by the Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigation, conducted the investigation. The Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service participated in the task force. Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided assistance.