peeling the labels off bottled prescription drugs

A Fairview man was sentenced to 30 months in prison today for a different sort of drug-dealing crime: He was caught with three other men in a basement apartment peeling the labels off bottled prescription drugs — mostly used for treating HIV — that would be later sold on the black market in the Dominican Republic, said federal authorities and the complaint.
In March 2010, local police found Edison C. Rosario, 25, along with the three other people, in a basement Fairview apartment using lighter fluid to peel off the medical prescription labels, authorities said.
Authorities found more than 6,000 bottles of prescription medication, including HIV drugs such as Atripla, Combivir, Isentress, Kaletra, Prezista, Reyataz, and Truvada at the scene.
In all, the medication had a wholesale value of $2 million, said U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.
Rosario was sentenced today before Judge Susan D. Wigenton in Newark, after previously pleading guilty to one count of conspiring to engage in the unlicensed wholesale distribution of pharmaceuticals.
Two other men, Rudy Manuel Gonzalez, 38, of Cliffside Park, and Jose Batista, 24, of New York, have also pleaded guilty, authorities said.
According to the complaint, the windows of the basement apartment in the Bergen County borough were all covered with either plastic bags or taped-down window shades.
It had no bed, couches or televisions and was mostly furnished with folding tables and chairs, the complaint said.
Prosecutors said today that the increasingly popular crime of repackaging and reselling prescription drugs has prompted two major concerns.
The first is that the re-sale of the drugs on the street or to pharmacies may be dangerous because the drugs could become contaminated during the smuggling process or while being treated with items like lighter fluid.
The second concern, prosecutors said, was that the prescription drugs were often purchased illegally from impoverished people coming out of pharmacies who needed the medicines, but chose to take cash from dealers instead.