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Internet Drug Ring Busted

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 11, 2008

DAYTONA BEACH - Federal prosecutors charged 11 people with running an Internet prescription drug operation accused of taking in $77 million and illegally dispensing 44 million doses of medication.

A 73-count indictment released Friday charged Jeffrey and Jude LaCour with money laundering and drug trafficking. The pair - who are father and son - ran a service called the Jive Network that recruited pharmacists and doctors to issue prescriptions based on Internet questionnaires, the indictment said.

The LaCours could not be reached for comment Saturday. It was not known whether they had a lawyer.

According to prosecutors, the LaCours used Web sites and customer service representatives to sell the drugs, which were mostly stimulants and depressants. Nine others, including Hudsen Smith of DeLand and seven doctors from across the country, also were charged.

The indictment states Jude LaCour, 35, owned and operated Jive Network, and his father worked as the company's director of operations. Smith served as the director of pharmacy and physician operations.

The doctors and pharmacists were paid to review simple questionnaires and never saw the patients they were prescribing medicines to, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill's office. None of the information submitted was ever verified, authorities said.

Jeffrey LaCour, 60, ran for mayor of Daytona Beach in 1981 and was convicted five years later of practicing chiropractic medicine without a license, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.

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