Oscar Omar Zabala, the Miami man arrested earlier this month in Florida’s Alligator Alley while trying to smuggle $1 million worth of prescription HIV drugs to Argentina, had his $750,000 bond reduced by $50,000 yesterday by Collier Circuit judge Fred Hardt. He is charged with 14 counts of trafficking in contraband prescription drugs, and faces 30 years in a state prison on each first-degree felony.
On September 5, Zabala and Juan Vasquez of Elizabeth, New Jersey, were arrested while traveling on a La Cubana bus, where Florida state troopers found hundreds of bottles of HIV meds stored in bags in the luggage compartment.
Zabala and Vasquez—who claimed not to know each other at the time of arrest—claimed that had purchased the drugs for $10,000 on the streets of New Jersey and were bringing them home to sick family members. Investigators suspect they were to be sold on the black market in South America.
Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
