Galea Indicted For Drug Smuggling; Athletes To Be Treated As Witnesses

Dan Herbeck reports on the five felony counts for the doctor accused of "smuggling misbranded and unapproved drugs into the United States for the purpose of treating more than 20 professional athletes."

"There are no athletes charged with criminal activity. They are viewed as witnesses, rather than as defendants, in this case," Hochul said. "Any one of these athletes treated by Dr. Galea could be called as trial witnesses."

Woods and Rodriguez publicly acknowledged earlier this year that they had been contacted by federal agents conducting the Galea probe, and both said they cooperated. The investigation was conduced by agents from the Buffalo office of the FBI, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs & Border Protection and the Food & Drug Administration.

Mahoney told The Buffalo News late Thursday that his client provided "homeopathic treatments" with a variety of drugs for athletes trying to recover from painful, career-threatening injuries.

"[Galea's] position is that he is using medicines for legitimate healing purposes," Mahoney said. "Just because a drug is unapproved by the government doesn't mean it's illegal."

Uh oh! That ought to make his defense interesting.

And it seems he really was a real life Dr. Leo Spaceman:

According to court papers, male potency-enhancement drugs were used in some of Galea's treatments. "It was further part of the conspiracy that [Galea] instructed Mary Anne Catalano to take Viagra and Cialis out of their original packages and to put them in nondescript pill bottles so as to make detection of them less likely during border inspections," the indictment says.

Comments

[Tim in Hoylake]

If the treatment they give him is anything close to Marc Emery, another Canadian on the edge of the law, he's in deep trouble. Emery was a Canadian in Vancouver who sold marywanna seeds on the internet. He had a customer in the U.S. The US authorities ordered him to be extradicted to the US, and sentenced to about 20 years in prison. How quaint. Galea might be charged for each different drug in the bag - see you next century, bud.

[Wisconsin Reader]

After marijuana is legalized in California - Maybe Galea's "treatments" will be next? . . . I wish I could be more confident in our government's reasons for taking such hard lines on "illegal drug" laws and enforcement. . . Our prisons are full of people who are there for possession of stuff that is less potent than my favorite, Ketel One on the rocks. . . All crack users first tried marijuana? . . . Yeah, and every drunken driver used to have a bicycle.

[Chema]

Up to 20 years in a government cage for providing medical treatments to willing patients? I also love the "providing false statements" to federal bureaucrats charge. It is, of course, perfectly legal for the Feds to lie. Truly the land of the free.

[Ky Laffoon's Ghost]

@Chema: "Up to 20 years in a government cage for providing medical treatments to willing patients?" Yeah, if you are not licensed to do so and smuggle drugs across an international border because you lack said license to prescribe them anywhere in the US. His "patients" could have gone to Canada to see the quack? No? As for making false statements to federal law enforcement officers (not "bureaucrats")? Only an idjit of the first magnitude would try to get away with that. NB: Never talk to the police without a lawyer present! Your point about the breakdown of the rule of law is well taken, lamentably. But it's not an argument that will fly in court.

[Marky Mark]

He should be thankful this isn't Singapore. Although if you are raising kids and enjoy a clean and civil society, capital punishment (hanging in the case of Singapore) for posession is not a bad suggestion.

In Singapore there is no measurable gang activity, no "don't go" areas, almost no petty thefts/break ins, no panhandling, no graffiti, no conspicuous violence - most murders there are related to matters of the heart.

AND, alchohol IS fully legal there. Clear evidence that despite both having downsides, alchohol does not come close to what drugs do with respect to the destruction of society.

[steve elling]

So, clarify something for me here about this whole federal smuggling beef. So Galea was injecting Cialis and Viagra into Tiger's knee? That would explain ... nevermind.

[digsouth]

Glamour cops. Looking for TV time.

Waste of money and resourses.

USDA owned by pharma.

More DC hearings: easier than actually legislatng the country.

[digsouth]

SteveE

Dr Galea was assuming that a round of golf would be 4 hours.