Indian-American being deported for conspiring in US

Washington: Ismail Khan, 29, An Indian-American, this Friday, lost his US citizenship after being sentenced 5 years imprisonment for being convicted for illegally importing drugs containing Viagra from China and selling it in the US said the Justice Department.

Khan, a resident of Decatur in Georgia, was sentenced to five years, seven months in federal prison after being convicted of conspiring to import illegally and distribute male enhancement pills that contained the drug found in Viagra, the US Department of Justice, attorney’s office, Northern District of Georgia said in a statement.
Khan now faces deportation after completion of serving of his jail time.

Judge Steve C Jones, at the hearing ordered the defendants status as a naturalised US citizen to be revoked and his certificate of naturalisation was declared as void. He ordered Khan to be deported back to India as soon as he serves his jail time.

“This defendant endangered the health of countless individuals by illegally importing and distributing drugs that can be obtained in the US only with a prescription written by a licensed, medical professional,” said US attorney John Horn.

“The defendant became a naturalised US citizen by giving a false statement about his criminal history, while he was engaged in this illicit drug scheme,” Horn said.

He also added had these pills have been correctly labeled the US Customs and Border protection would have stopped these drugs entering US cause the ingredient present in these pills is like that of Viagra which is only available in the country through a prescription from the Doctor.

To avoid getting caught at the Customs, the defendant and his co-conspirators directed their suppliers to mislabel the boxes containing pills to make it appear they looked like items legally imported in US, said the Justice Department.

Khan along with his co conspirators received the illegally imported boxes at different places in Atlanta. They rented store houses with fake names, fake business cards, fake addresses to to re-label the boxes and then distributed them throughout Atlanta and US, as reported in Hindustan Times.