Wal-Mart's "Frightening" Narcotics Deal

Illegal Aliens Deliver Fear & Loathing To Wal-Mart Pharmacies

By Al Norman

One of the world's largest drug store chains is employing a very unusual---and provocative---method for sourcing its drugs.

This week mighty Wal-Mart found itself at the center of a street-level drug deal that raised larger questions about where and how the retailer gets its cheap drugs.

In June of 2008, I wrote in this space about Wal-Mart's global sourcing empire for prescription drugs, quoting one pharmaceutical industry analyst as saying, Wal-Mart drugs "come from all over the world. They're U.S. manufacturers, Israeli and Indian manufacturers. They have a choice of where to buy these drugs."

But this week, Wal-Mart's choice of drug vendors made some small town news. The corporation was tight-lipped about a narcotics source that raised lingering questions about where the giant retailer is really getting its cheap drugs, and what product safety and procurement protections are in place at the retailer's pharmacies. In fact, the whole incident was described by the ABC news affiliate that broke the story as "strange."

Strange, but also unsettling. ABC 4 News in Cedar City, Utah---a town of roughly 28,000 people---reported that a routine traffic stop of three men led to a bizarre tale of prescription narcotics, illegal couriers, a Las Vegas drug supplier, and the world's largest retailer.

Diego Jimenez, Maricio Jimenez, and Kyle Gutierrez are being held in a jail in Iron County while local authorities sift through their odd story. Police pulled over their car as it was traveling north on Route 15 just south of 100 miles per hour. The men claim they were hired to deliver prescription drugs to at least three Wal-Mart stores, including the superstore on South Providence Drive in Cedar City, Utah, which has an in-store pharmacy. The three men reportedly had already been to the Wal-Mart supercenter in St. George, Utah, which is south of Cedar City on Route 15, and the Wal-Mart superstore on Route 15 further south in Mesquite, Nevada, on the border with Arizona.

While searching the car, police found marijuana paraphernalia, two boxes of prescription narcotics, and a retail invoice for $30,000. Two of the three men in the car admitted to being illegal aliens. The men claimed they had been retained by a company called Nevada Courier, given $150 and a tank of gas to "drive these medications down here and drop them off."

The three suspects arrested are all reportedly from Las Vegas. The police verified their story by checking with the retailer. "I called Wal-Mart," one police spokesman told ABC news, "and they said yeah they were expecting a delivery and the driver was late."

Wal-Mart would not shed more light on the case when contacted by ABC, but sent reporters an email which read, "This situation is unacceptable to Wal-Mart. We maintain strict standards for courier companies that transport products for us. As this was a situation involving a contractor, your questions would need to be addressed by the courier company or the police."

But Iron County Sheriffs were talking, and they told ABC, "You don't know if they opened the box, no tamper seals, nothing...so you never know what you're going to get I guess." The ABC piece added: "Sheriffs say what's frightening here is the safety of Wal-Mart's pharmacy customers."

Wal-Mart has been in the pharmacy business since 1978, and has over 4,264 pharmacy locations in the U.S. alone. The company boasts of its high-tech software system that gives its pharmacists access to a "huge database" across the country. Yet a company with this sophistication is obtaining narcotics from a carload of illegal "couriers" barreling up Route 15 at 96 miles per hour.

Wal-Mart is right: this situation is "unacceptable." But the issue here is not only Wal-Mart's credibility. The issue is the safety of Wal-Mart customers. Where are these drugs really coming from? Who are these couriers? Why are narcotics being driven to stores in a manner reminiscent of Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas?

Regulatory officials in Utah and Nevada need to track the supply chain in this case, and report back on reforms needed to deal with Wal-Mart's unacceptable narcotics deals. Consumers put all their confidence in these national chain stores---but if this "strange" tale from Cedar City, Utah was enough to frighten the cops, it should scare the rest of us as well.

At Wal-Mart, you never know what you're going to get, I guess.

Al Norman is the founder of Sprawl-Busters, and has been helping local activists fight big box stores for nearly 16 years. His website is http://www.sprawl-busters.com.

Comments

[SingingGuy]

Have the drugs they were delivering been analyzed to see if they are even real drugs and not fake placebos which are a flourishing business in places like China and Mexico? To me that's truly scary. I mean couldn't they just as easily be made out things like formaldahide or antifreeze. This story needs a much wider dissemination.

[worriedinvt]

Agreed!

[Meah]

I would not step into any Walmart if my life depended on it.

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

In the case of medication, your life certainly would depend on it.

[Villagesviewpoint]

Now I ask you, when was the last time you heard of someone stoned on pot, going 96 miles per hour?

Maybe if he drove off a cliff!

But who would think Wal-Mart would find a less expensive way of doing business? I mean after all, they have always been so above board, and all.

Can anyone tell me why fish is now coming in a bag, and is in most cases a product of China? And it still sells for $6.99 a pound!

[ramal]

Any drug should be made available at cost to anyone who wants it.

[TooLate4theUS]

And who or what company would provide such a service with no profit motive? You?

[BBackSoon]

So my name goes on a list if I get the right kind of cold medicine but they can ship narcotics in a car? I don’t care who was driving or how fast they were going. They shipped it by car?

I knew a guy that worked for an armored car company and one of the things they moved was certain drugs, such as morphine. I guess I just assumed drug transportation was tightly regulated just like the sales.

Guess that costs too much money.

[marinade]

If this sort of thing happens to WalMart with prescription drugs, it can happen with any retailer with any product. Think vitamins and prepared foods, even soda. The labels don't say where the end product is made or where the ingredients come from. What kind of testing gets done, if any?

[worriedinvt]

No; this cannot happen with "any retailer." When my local pharmacist receives narcotics, they are delivered ONLY by bonded couriers.

[TooLate4theUS]

And they're still coming from the same place.

[research]

See? We don't need regulation!

[BBackSoon]

I started singing Pink Floyd.

We don’t need NO Regulation.

[Nezua]

Please dont help the right wing antis and racists in their attempt to legitimize the phrase "illegal aliens."

"Undocumented" will do. Other terms feed into the hate and violence that is hurting my people. Please stop aiding that.

[TooLate4theUS]

Illegal : not according to or authorized by law : unlawful, illicit ; also : not sanctioned by official rules (as of a game)

Alien : relating, belonging, or owing allegiance to another country or government

[breakingpoint]

Wal-Mart will never learn until they lose their license. Even the fact that so many of their pharm products are put together in questionable foreign countries; and law makers get upset about folks going to Canada...
What's worse is Communist China getting their foot in our markets through Wal-Mart without paying anywhere near the prices we pay to sell into theirs. And that doesn't even address their horrible labor, environmental and human rights standards, Americans need to really wake up - they are outsourcing their life style through poor standards for a bunch of questionable and cheat crap.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3836296181471292925

[racom]

You might want to check with your pharmacist, a very large % of all our drugs are manufactured in foreign countries. Canada, India, Germany, Israel and many others including Ireland. The point of manufacture is not the issue here, the need for regulation and control only gets greater. Our governmental agencies that have these responsibilities have been gutted during the conservative administrations of reagan, bush and bush. As you point out, China has flooded us with really bad imports, the latest is dry wall that is ruining the homes its used in.

[breakingpoint]

this global economy is killing us and making the poor poorer and the rich wealthier.

[zizyphus]

What kind of company pays you in advance for delivery work? Sounds great.

So WalMart is scoring their RX drugs from the syndicate in Las Vegas, a Mexican cartel, or what?

[justoverit333]

holy smokes I cannot believe this.
I cannot see Walmart approving something
like this. Must be a manager keeping the
courier fee. wow.

[worriedinvt]

You're kidding, right? You can't see Walmart approving something like this??!! Good ol' Walmart, that has the longest rap-sheet in the retail industry for mistreating employees; using predatory marketing to strangle local competitors; squeezing domestic manufacturers until they die or bleed our jobs to off-shore sweat-shops? That Walmart? How COULD they approve such a thing?!! Read the article more carefully. Either a number of managers were conspiring "to keep the courier fee;" or, far more likely, the practice is consistent with the systemic rot that inevitably developed in Walmart's greed-driven race to the bottom.

[huntunseasun]

I worked for Wal-mart for six years. Trust me. Wal-mart is capable of ANYTHING.

[garymc8]

gop family values at their best.

[breakingpoint]

oh c'mon Hillary sat on their BOD, it's an Arkansas based company . You don't believe Wal-mart greadr the hands of both parties, really? wake up already.

[garymc8]

CVS took over Longs Drugs, switched to "their" generic. My blood pressure went up 40 points. I told my Pharmacist to switch back or I would go elsewhere for my prescriptions. He gladly switched and informed me I was not the only one who complained. MARK MY WORDS! THEIR GREED WILL KILL US IF WE DON'T STOP THEM FIRST.

[Brian F]

I like how anytime anyone is every nabbed for drug running or whatever, there's ALWAYS "marijuana paraphernelia" in the car. Nevermind the pills and crap that can, and do, kill people, those SOB's had murriwanna!!! Get 'em!!

[OkieIntellectual]

Anyone who purchases ANYTHING from Wal-Mart deserves to get the bird-flu or whatever. For several years I have been willing to go miles out of my way to keep from giving that company my money.

[ignorantwillyharper]

It's kind of like getting on the Internet and ordering all your prescriptions from China.

[huntunseasun]

I worked at Wal-mart for six years; store 1238. I quit two years ago. I have not stepped into a wal-mart since.

[TooLate4theUS]

I worked there for 6 years and was treated great. My health insurance was better than my wife's and she was a nurse. I had profit sharing that I did not have to contribute to and an employee stock purchase plan that allowed me to buy stock at a 15% discount. I made a ton of money. Of course, i didnt make it my permanent job. I was in college and got a real job after graduation and rolled that money into a 401k plan that is worth a heck of a lot today.

[huntunseasun]

I was making over 14 dollars an hour. The new hires were only making 6.50 to 7.50 an hour.