Boris Arencibia Sentenced in $28M Pharma Scheme

Boris Arencibia was sentenced on October 30, 2025, to 57 months in federal prison for his role in a $28 million scheme that funneled diverted and misbranded prescription drugs, including HIV and cancer medications, into pharmacies across the United States. The Cuban-born Miami music promoter and boxing manager pleaded guilty in two federal cases: one for conspiracy to commit money laundering, and a second for trafficking in medical products with falsified documentation.¹

The Sentence and Financial Penalties

U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles imposed the 57-month sentence in the original 2019 conspiracy case (19-cr-20674), to run concurrently with a 43-month sentence in a 2025 case (25-cr-20154). Co-defendant Jose Armando Rivera Garcia received identical sentences.²

Under the plea agreements, Arencibia and Rivera Garcia are jointly required to pay $21 million to the federal government for losses tied to the medical product trafficking. Arencibia faces a separate $7 million forfeiture judgment in the money laundering case.³

What the Scheme Did

Arencibia and his co-conspirators bought high-cost prescription medications from illicit street sources, including patients selling their own prescriptions and people obtaining prescriptions through fraud. The drugs required carefully controlled storage to remain effective, but the network kept them without any safeguards. Members of the conspiracy then repackaged the medications, falsified documentation to make them appear to come from legitimate manufacturers or wholesalers, and resold them to pharmacies through sham distribution companies.¹

The health risks were direct. Because the drugs were stored improperly and moved outside any quality controls, some bottles that reached pharmacies contained the wrong medication, vitamins, or even pebbles instead of the drugs patients had been prescribed. U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said “diverted drugs put patients’ lives at risk” and that the defendants pushed “tainted and repackaged medications” knowing the danger.¹

Arencibia’s Role

Prosecutors identified Arencibia as a major supplier within the operation. Between 2013 and 2019, he conspired with Lazaro Hernandez and others to purchase prescription medications obtained through theft, burglary, or healthcare fraud. He controlled a corporation called Quality Supplement Distributors, used to distribute the diverted drugs, and a second entity, LDD Distributors Inc., registered in Connecticut under someone else’s name.⁴ Prosecutors alleged he laundered roughly $400,000 in proceeds through these corporations.⁵

The Larger Conspiracy

Arencibia’s case grew out of a $78 million diverted pharmaceutical operation that prosecutors say was orchestrated by Stephen Costa beginning in 2013. Costa acquired licensed pharmaceutical wholesale companies in Puerto Rico and built a roughly 20-person network to buy street-level prescription drugs, repackage them under false labels, and sell them to pharmacies as if they came directly from legitimate manufacturers. The operation was shut down in May 2019, and between 2019 and 2024 a series of superseding indictments charged 20 defendants in the Southern District of Florida. Costa was sentenced in July 2025 to 14 years in federal prison.⁶

Arencibia was added as Defendant 18 in the fifth superseding indictment, filed in December 2023, and again in the sixth superseding indictment filed under seal in May 2024.⁷

Arrest, Detention, and a Prior Conviction

Federal agents arrested Arencibia at his home in the Kendall area of Miami on January 26, 2024. The following month, Magistrate Judge Lauren Louis rejected a proposed $300,000 bond and ordered him held pending trial. The judge deemed him a serious flight risk, pointing to his ties to Cuba and his organization of the Santa María Music Fest in Camagüey in August 2023, and concluded he could use his contacts on the island to flee.⁸

His immigration status also complicated matters. A 2000 federal conviction for possessing equipment to create fraudulent credit cards, for which he received six months in prison and three years of probation, had resulted in the revocation of his U.S. permanent residency. An immigration lawyer was working to resolve his status at the time of his 2024 arrest.⁵ He remained in federal custody without bond from January 2024 through sentencing, and his defense attorney, Frank Quintero, said publicly that Arencibia was not cooperating with the government.³

Who Boris Arencibia Is

Before the criminal cases, Arencibia was a familiar figure in Miami’s Cuban entertainment scene. Born September 7, 1973, in Pinar del Río, Cuba, he was a seven-time Cuban judo champion who defected from a delegation at the 1993 Central American and Caribbean Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1994, he won the U.S. national judo championship in the 60-kilogram weight class.⁹

He founded the nightclub Liquid in Puerto Rico before moving into entertainment management. He co-founded Caribbean Promotions, also known as Caribe Promotions, with promoter Luis De Cubas, and went on to represent several exiled Cuban professional boxers, most notably two-time Olympic gold medalist Guillermo Rigondeaux. Others he managed included Yudel Johnson, Yordanis Despaigne, and Yuniel Dorticós.⁹

1
U.S. Department of Justice. Two Miami Men Sentenced to Nearly Five Years in Prison for $28 Million Scheme Involving Diverted Pharmaceuticals
2
Caribbean National Weekly. Two Miami Men Sentenced in $28M Scheme Involving Diverted HIV and Cancer Drugs
3
Miami Herald. Boris Arencibia Pleads Guilty in Miami Federal Drug Diversion Cases
4
Partnership for Safe Medicines. Sixth Superseding Indictment, Case No. 19-20674-CR-GAYLES
5
Miami Herald. Prominent Cuban Music Promoter Indicted in Drug Diversion Scheme
6
U.S. Department of Justice. Conspiracy Ringleader of $78 Million Diverted Prescription Drug Operation Sentenced
7
CourtListener. United States v. Costa, 1:19-cr-20674
8
Miami Herald. Cuban Music Promoter Detained as Flight Risk in Drug Diversion Case
9
Periódico Cubano. Boris Arencibia – Biografía del Empresario y Promotor de Santa María Music Fest