A Manassas Park man has been charged in a scheme to distribute and sell counterfeit Viagra tablets, just weeks after his partner pleaded guilty to dealing the fake erectile dysfunction pills. Charges of trafficking in counterfeit goods were unsealed this week against 34-year-old Dwayne Skiles. He allegedly conspired with 28-year-old Sarah A. Knott, a Waldorf woman who admitted in late May that she sold a fake, high-grade version of the sex enhancement drug.
Skiles supplied Knott with the counterfeit pills, according to the criminal complaint filed in federal court in Greenbelt. Emails between the two show that Knott advertised and arranged sales of the fake tablets and Skiles shipped them, the complaint says.
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No lawyer was listed for Skiles in court records Tuesday and no phone number for him could be located. He didn’t respond to an email sent to the address listed in the complaint.
When authorities searched Knott’s home, they found 45,684 counterfeit pills, according to her plea agreement.
The pair is accused of selling the tablets through Craigslist postings, emails and other means from December 2009 to January 2011.
The tablets they sold were a higher-potency version of the male enhancement drug that looked similar to authentic Viagra — but had some clear differences, including a darker coloring and incorrect font, according to court records.
The pair’s emails show how the pair conspired to make customers trust them and avoid detection by law enforcement.
In one December 2009 email to Skiles, Knott wrote that she would “use multiple names to give the perception we are more than 2 people to instill trust.”
The two discussed hiring a courier to help them ship the pills, but Skiles shot down that idea, writing, “I also don’t think it is a good idea to involve a third party (Courier) that is going to give names in 3 seconds to get out of trouble. We will pay this person for no reason.”
Authorities learned of their counterfeit sales from private investigators for Pfizer Corp., the maker of the drug, who bought pills from someone purporting to sell Viagra on Craigslist. The Craigslist posting was linked to Knott.
When federal agents questioned Knott, she told them that she received a “large quantity” of fake Viagra from Skiles, but she didn’t know how he had obtained it. Skiles is a family friend who has worked on computer issues for Knott’s husband, a self-employed businessman in the cell phone industry, she told investigators.
