Shirley woman arrested on charges of selling misbranded Ozempic, other weight-loss drugs on black market
A picture of an evidence bag released by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York showing one of the packages that was part of the alleged scheme. Credit: USANYS
A Shirley woman was arrested Wednesday on federal charges of selling black market and misbranded weight-loss drugs, including Ozempic, Mesofrance and Acxion, on her social media feed, causing at least one customer to develop lesions from a tainted dose, according to Manhattan federal prosecutors.
This is the first criminal case for mislabeling and adulterating the drugs, which have been touted by celebrities for their slimming qualities, according to U.S. Attorney Damian Williams. Semaglutide drugs like Ozempic, approved for diabetes treatment, have recently been used off-label for weight loss.
Isis Navarro Reyes, 36, who investigators said is not licensed to prescribe pharmaceuticals, is accused of buying the weight-loss drugs from Central and South America, then hawking them on TikTok from her home, prosecutors said.
From November 2022 to January 2024, Reyes posted video ads for the drugs, describing how to inject them, claiming to have personal experience with them and giving interested customers her encrypted messaging app to order, according to federal investigators.
In January 2023, federal authorities said agents with U.S. Customs and Border Control seized a shipment from Mexico sent to Reyes with dozens of boxes of Acxion, a weight-loss drug not approved in the United States.
The CBP sent her a letter, the authorities said, informing her that the drugs were not allowed in this country, but they said she continued to sell them.
One woman from White Plains ordered 30 doses of Mesofrance, a weight-loss drug, from Reyes in February 2023, according to prosecutors.
Reyes sent her the drug and an audio recording through her encrypted app of directions on administering it. After 28 injections, the woman developed lesions, which her doctor diagnosed as a highly resistant bacterial infection.
The New York Department of Health tested the remaining doses and found they were contaminated with the same bacteria found in the woman’s infection, according to prosecutors.
Federal investigators set up a sting operation and, posing as a customer, an agent purchased $375 of Ozempic on Jan. 7 using the Zelle payment app.
Reyes was arrested Wednesday and charged with one count of smuggling, one count of receiving misbranded drugs in interstate commerce, one count of dispensing misbranded drugs and other related charges.
If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison.
“Reyes’s alleged unlawful dispensing of these drugs caused significant, life-threatening injuries to some victims and put all of her victims in harm’s way,” Williams said in a statement. “Recently, public interest in semaglutide and weight loss drugs has skyrocketed, and criminals have sought to take advantage of this interest for their ends.”
Reyes was expected to be arraigned Wednesday. Her lawyer, Zawadi Baharanyi, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
