OPINION AND ORDER DENYING MOTIONS TO DISMISS In this case, the Government alleges several years-long conspiracies to drug racehorses competing at the highest levels of the sport. According to the Government, Defendants’ schemes succeeded for some time, propelling some of the defendants to the top of the horse racing world and resulting in numerous million-dollar finishes, all the while risking the health of the competing horses and defrauding federal and state drug regulators, law enforcement, racing officials and regulators, and the public. Among others, the indictment names as Defendants prominent racehorse trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis. The Government alleges that they and others were involved in manufacturing, distributing, and administering dangerous unregulated and misbranded drugs to horses, including Dubai Golden Shaheen winner XY Jet, and Kentucky Derby first-finisher Maximum Security. In connection with Defendants’ efforts to produce, distribute, and use numerous unsafe and unapproved performance-enhancing drugs on horses they trained, treated, or otherwise controlled, the Government has charged Defendants with felony conspiracy to violate drug adulteration and misbranding laws. The forty-six page Superseding Indictment alleges that through various means, Defendants acted in concert to manufacture, market, sell, and distribute unauthorized and misbranded performance-enhancing drugs to be administered to racehorses, all the while intending to defraud or mislead federal and state drug regulators, racing officials, and others. Before the Court are three motions by certain Defendants to dismiss the Superseding Indictment. For the reasons that follow, the motions are DENIED. BACKGROUND1 Defendants in this action are charged with a series of multi-year conspiracies to produce, distribute, and use adulterated and misbranded performance-enhancing drugs (“PEDs”) on thoroughbred and standardbred racehorses. Indictment 2. The drugs were administered to racehorses before races to improve their performance, frequency of competition, and winnings, colloquially referred to as “doping.” Indictment
2, 3. As a result of the doping scheme, the horses’ trainers, including high profile trainers Defendants Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis, allegedly earned as trainer fees shares of higher purses and the opportunity to train more and better horses. Indictment 2. The production, distribution, and use of adulterated, mislabeled, and non-FDA-approved drugs is illegal. See 21 U.S.C. §333. The Government seeks to hold Defendants responsible for their alleged multimillion dollar doping schemes, for the risks to which they exposed racehorses, and for their fraud on government entities, including the federal Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) and Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”), state racing regulators and officials, and ultimately the public. Indictment 3. The Indictment describes four of the PEDs that Defendants allegedly manufactured, distributed, and used on horses: “Epogen,” SGF-1000, customized analgesics, and “Red acid.”involving one or more Indictment 13. Each of these drugs poses a risk of serious injury or death to the horses to which they are administered. Virtually all of the drugs that Defendants manufactured and distributed did not have FDA approval, lacked a prescription, or were misleadingly labeled to avoid law enforcement or regulatory oversight. See Indictment
