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.

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com