In July of 2004 Belize's Anti-Drug Unit closed in on an outlaw pharmaceutical operation, in the Data Pro EPZ Park at the Burrell Boom junction on the Northern Highway. At the time, police claimed to have found two hundred and twenty eight thousand ecstasy pills - but tests later showed they were not ecstasy and the case fell apart in the Belizean courts. But in the U.S. that same evidence has been used by the United States Department of Justice to build a massive case against the owner of the Data Pro Operation, Jared Wheat and his U.S. company, Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals.
Last week, in a coordinated operation, DEA agents swooped down on Wheat and 8 of his associates in three States. All were placed under federal indictment and two of those indictments were reserved for two of Wheat's employees in Belize: his former manager, 38-year-old Michelle Young and his former accountant, 28-year-old Guillermo Pech. Presumably, these Belizeans will either be offered to go to testify willingly, or they would have to be extradited.
But right now in the U.S., a hearing has been held for four of the U.S. defendants including Wheat, who was denied bail. According to U.S. news reports, during the three hour hearing, federal prosecutors showed photograph's of the Data Pro Lab - pointing to unsanitary conditions. The U.S. prosecutors say that the Data Pro Lab was at the center of a conspiracy to market and sell dubious knock offs of 24 prescription drugs to U.S. citizens through a front company in Canada.
According to those prosecutors, between 2002 and 2004 - Wheat received enough active ingredients here in Belize to manufacture millions of pills - right there at Data Pro.
All told, the indictment against Wheat seeks the seizure of rumors assets, and a money judgement of US$20 million - from a company estimated to be worth US$35 million.
