Selling fake Viagra brings jail

A Jordanian national was sentenced yesterday to four years in federal prison for trafficking in thousands of counterfeit Viagra pills imported from Egypt and stored in Glen Burnie, according to the Maryland U.S. attorney's office.

Iyad Dogmosh, 27, is expected to be deported after he completes his sentence, prosecutors said in a statement. He pleaded guilty in August last year to two counts of trafficking in counterfeit goods.

As part of his plea agreement, Dogmosh admitted that he kept a suitcase containing more than 36,000 fake Viagra tablets at a storage facility in Glen Burnie. Investigators seized the case during a search last year. He also admitted selling 2,000 pills in 2006.

Prosecutors said the federal Food and Drug Administration tested the pills and found that while they were the same size, shape and color as real Viagra, they lacked a key ingredient, sildenafil citrate. They did, however, contain metronidazole, an antibiotic that when combined with alcohol can cause abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting and headaches.

Prosecutors said 38,249 real Viagra pills, made by Pfizer Inc., sell for $402,379.