Texas Woman Busted in Oregon for Selling Black Market Animal Meds on Social Media

MEDFORD, Ore. — A Texas woman, Nicole Randall, 37, of Cedar Park, who sold unauthorized animal drugs through Facebook, pleaded guilty in federal court after reaching a plea agreement with the Oregon District Attorney (DA) in a case investigated by the FDA and prosecuted in federal court.

Unlicensed Texas Woman Selling Animal Drugs On Facebook Gets Plea Deal

Court documents indicate that Randall used fake names to smuggle GS-441524 into the US between February 2020 and May 2022. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had not approved this drug for human or animal consumption.

The drugs were disguised as facial masks, pet shampoo, beauty products, and cosmetics.

Using the Facebook group “FIP Warriors 5.0,” Randall and others defrauded and misled customers by diagnosing their cats and kittens with feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a viral disease affecting cats.

The drug GS-441524 was then prescribed for the animals’ consumption even though Randall had no veterinary or prescriber licenses.

In an August 2021 sting operation, an agent joined FIP Warriors 5.0 and submitted photographs of a healthy cat that a licensed veterinarian had recently examined. Randall then instructed payment for the unapproved drugs using Paypal, Zelle, or CashApp after misdiagnosing the cat with FIP and prescribing GS-441524.

The payment note did not mention cat medicine, vials, pills, or brand names.

Agents executed a federal search warrant at Randall’s residence in Cedar Park in July 2022. They seized around 30 boxes of glass vials containing the adulterated drug. Investigators established that

Randall distributed 58,460 liquid vials and 236,836 pills of GS-441524 between July 2020 and June 2022.

Randall was charged with introducing an adulterated drug into interstate commerce on June 4, 2024, and pleaded guilty to the charge in terms of the plea agreement.  Yesterday, she was sentenced to one year of probation.

The FIP 5.0 scheme was highly profitable. As part of the plea agreement, Randall agreed to forfeit four real properties, ten financial accounts, and a Tesla- worth roughly $4 million combined. The assets were traceable to her proceeds from smuggling and distributing the unapproved drugs.