SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. (Reuters) - Agents for the U.S. BorderPatrol
seized more than 1,000 Viagra pills from a Japanese tourist who was
smuggling the anti-impotence medication into the United States from
Mexico, a spokesman said Thursday.
"It was a little unusual. I think it's the first case of Viagra being
seized
by the Border Patrol -- certainly the first time at San Clemente,'' said
Bill
Strassberger, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization
Service.
The distinctive blue tablets were discovered in the suitcase of the
tourist,
who was stopped by agents at the San Clemente checkpoint some 20
miles North of the U.S.-Mexico border. The agents searched his car last
Sunday after the man appeared nervous passing northward through the
checkpoint on the main San Diego-Los Angeles freeway.
"The agents had a sixth sense that something needed to be looked at,''
Strassberger said. The man, who was not arrested and was let go after
the 1,046pills were seized, said he had bought them in Tijuana, across
the border from San Ysidro, California, for $4,781. He told officials he
intended to resell the Viagra -- in 50- and100-milligram sizes -- in
Japan,
said Strassberger.
Possession of Viagra is not against U.S. law, but it is a violation of
Federal Drug Administration regulations to have the drug without a
prescription. Strassberger said federal prosecutors had not decided
whether to bring charges against the Japanese man for smuggling the
drugs.