A federal grand jury Wednesday indicted 18 people in connection with Internet-based pharmacies that prosecutors contend were illegally importing and selling drugs.

U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman called the indictments the result of "a remarkable investigation" due to its scope and the fact investigators were able to charge people at every stage of the operation.

The indictments allege every one of the defendants was engaged in some part of an operation that distributed more than 11 million pills for millions of dollars from 2003 until the operations were shut down. In many cases, the pills were being distributed without any checks being made to see if the person ordering them had a legitimate prescription or had even been seen by a doctor, according to prosecutors.

Furthermore, Frank Smith, assistant agent-in-charge with the Drug Enforcement Administration, said the pills being mailed were actually sub-potent.

"What (customers) think they're getting, they're actually not getting," he said.

Tolman stressed that the act of buying prescription drugs over the Internet itself is not illegal. However, what these Web sites didn't have were checks and balances to make sure the person buying the drugs actually had a prescription, he said.

Furthermore, those who had legitimate prescriptions were put at risk by not receiving the pills they thought they were ordering.

Among those indicted is an Orem physician, accused in a conspiracy to import Phentermine, a stimulant, and lying to investigators about his involvement with the Web site lighthousemeds.com.

According to an IRS agent's affidavit filed with one of the charges, authorities became aware of the Web sites through a confidential informant, who identified Greg Crosby, 52, of Provo, who was distributing Phentermine through his Web-based pharmacy, lighthousemeds.com. The IRS said he made almost $1 million a month in sales and believes the site grossed approximately $8.9 million overall.

As of Wednesday, the Web sites were shut down, but the doctors were allowed to keep their practices open. Tolman declined comment Wednesday whether their practices in Utah were also being investigated. Crosby's Web sites are not licensed pharmacies, federal authorities said.

The Internet pharmacies were being supplied by companies in Mexico, Tolman said. Four people in Mexico were indicted in Salt Lake City Wednesday. One was in custody due to a prior unrelated arrest.

In June, Crosby's home was raided by federal agents. He identified Dr. James Brinton and Noah Sifuentes as business partners.

Crosby fingered Sifuentes, 56, of Orem, as the one who found the Mexican pharmaceuticals manufacturer in 2003, and said they had to pay someone for a mold to make the Mexican pills look identical to the ones made in the United States, federal authorities wrote.

A search of Sifuentes' Orem home led to more people involved in the sale and distribution of the pills, the charging documents said. Among them was Edgar U. Flores-Cuevas, 35, of Mexico, who is also indicted.

"One of the e-mails acknowledged that IFA had confirmed a transfer and Flores then listed six suggestions on how to receive the pills and destroy the shipping containers in order to avoid detection by law enforcement," Fletcher wrote.

Federal authorities claim Brinton and Crosby had a deal with a Florida company to sell the drugs to customers whose prescriptions were denied. Brinton is also charged with lying to the DEA about his involvement in lighthousemeds.com.

The 14 others are indicted on charges of conspiring to import controlled substances into the United States, including Ritalin, Xanax, Valium and Adipex, federal prosecutors said.

Tolman said when he took office, cracking down on pharmaceutical fraud and illegal distributors in paritcular was one of his top priorities.

"This is the beginning of fulfilling that promise," he said.

In 2006, the DEA reported 11 percent of the prescriptions filled by regular pharmacies were for controlled substances. But during that same time period, 95 percent of the prescriptions for on-line pharmacies were for controlled substances.

People worried about which on-line pharmacies are legit can normally tell by the steps that Web site takes to verify a person actually needs prescription meds compared to the ones that only want bank account information, Tolman said.

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com