Two Miami residents, Boris Arencibia and Jose Armando Rivera Garcia, have been sentenced to 57 months in federal prison for their involvement in schemes that sold diverted and misbranded pharmaceutical drugs, including medications for HIV and cancer. The sentencing took place on October 30.
Court documents state that Arencibia, 52, and Rivera Garcia, 45, purchased expensive prescription drugs from illegal sources. These included patients who sold their own prescriptions and individuals who obtained medications through fraudulent means. The drugs require controlled storage conditions to remain effective but were kept without safeguards.
“Diverted drugs put patients’ lives at risk,” said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida. “These defendants pushed tainted and repackaged medications into pharmacies across the country, knowing full well the danger. Our Office will continue to work with FDA, HHS-OIG, and the FBI to protect patients and hold accountable anyone who turns the healthcare system into a criminal marketplace.”
After acquiring the pharmaceuticals, members of the conspiracy repackaged them and falsified paperwork to make it appear as if they came directly from manufacturers or legitimate wholesalers. The group marketed these products through fake distribution companies and shipped them nationwide to pharmacies where unsuspecting customers bought them. In some cases, bottles contained incorrect medications or non-medicinal items like vitamins or pebbles.
The first case was indicted in 2019 as part of a conspiracy involving 20 defendants; all but one fugitive have now received prison sentences ranging from 30 months to 14 years. Arencibia procured large quantities of diverted drugs while Rivera Garcia created LDD Distributors to receive these medicines before selling them onward. Both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering for using financial transactions to hide proceeds from selling misbranded drugs.
A second case filed in 2025 charged both men with operating a wholesale company that marketed diverted pharmaceuticals nationwide using falsified documentation about their origins and storage conditions. They pleaded guilty to trafficking medical products with false documentation.
Combined sales from both schemes totaled approximately $28 million worth of diverted pharmaceuticals.
U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles ordered Arencibia and Rivera Garcia’s sentences in both cases be served concurrently: 57 months for the first case alongside concurrent 43-month terms for the second.
The investigations were led by several agencies: FDA-OCI and FBI Miami handled the first case; HHS-OIG investigated the second.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Tamen prosecuted the earlier case while Trial Attorney Jacqueline Zee DerOvanesian handled prosecution of the later charges; Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Grosnoff is managing asset forfeiture proceedings.
Further information about these cases can be found at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov under case numbers 19-cr-20674 and 25-cr-20154.
