Californian Gets 27 Years in Drug-Capsule Poison Scheme

A former San Marino stock brokerage trainee was sentenced Thursday in Orlando, Fla., to 27 years in prison for lacing over-the-counter drug capsules with rat poison in a scheme to profit from the stock options market.

Edward Marks, 25, pleaded guilty Aug. 26 to putting the poison into Contac, Dietac and Teldrin capsules in the Orlando and Houston areas in an unsuccessful effort to depress the stock of the manufacturer, SmithKline Beckman Corp.

He admitted making anonymous telephone calls to police and news organizations to claim that the capsules had been tainted with cyanide and to threaten more tampering. No one was injured by the poison, which authorities said was not enough to kill a human being.

The tearful Marks was told by U.S. District Judge Patricia Fawsett, “This is a serious offense that warrants a substantial time of imprisonment.” The judge noted that the crime had an impact “on the entire consumer confidence in the drug industry” and declared, “This is a type of internal terrorism that can’t be condoned.”

Marks, who last lived in Temple City, wept while pleading for leniency. He initially was charged with 27 counts of product tampering, wire fraud and giving false information. He pleaded guilty to nine counts under a plea bargain.

Prosecutor Bruce Hinshelwood told the court that the tampering was another in a long series of get-rich-quick schemes and crimes perpetrated by Marks, who was called “Fast Eddie” by police in his hometown of Framingham, Mass.

Linked by Fingerprint

Marks was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport last May 29 after being linked to the tampering case by a single fingerprint on a capsule in Orlando. FBI agents then learned he had purchased a large number of “put” options for SmithKline Beckman stock. They would have enabled him to turn a heavy profit if the stock had plunged.

Three employees at the Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith brokerage in San Marino subsequently identified the voice in one of the threatening telephone calls as that of Marks.

The recall of the drugs cost the manufacturer $41 million, the judge pointed out. Only $25 million of that was covered by insurance.