PHOENIX (Reuters) - Authorities have shut down a local company and seized $30 million of its assets for allegedly selling bogus penile enlargement pills over the Internet, state officials said on Wednesday.

C.P. Direct, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, was put out of business and its Web sites closed following complaints about the company and its product that promised results within months of taking its supposedly potent yet costly "Longitude" pill, officials said.

Among the items seized were luxury cars, including a Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, Ferrari and Bentley, $20 million in bank accounts, $3 million in cash and a bounty of luxury jewelry, according to a list of the items.

Company officials could not be reached for comment.

The initial cost of the pills was $59.99, plus shipping and handling for a month's supply and $39.99 a month thereafter. Records showed the pills cost $2.50 per bottle to manufacture.

The company also allegedly sold pills that supposedly guaranteed height increases and bigger breasts, officials said.

"It's going to take time to find out how many people bought the pills," said Pati Urias, a state Attorney General's spokeswoman. "It appears they did quite a bit of volume."

Named in the civil forfeiture action was Michael A. Consoli, 44, and his mother, Geraldine Consoli, 76, and Vincent J. Passafiume, 28.

The three were warned by the state in 1996 about fraudulent practices when they operated a business that sold computers and other electronic equipment. In 1999, the Consolis and Passafiume were barred from doing business in Arizona through the mail, Internet or using other telecommunication devices.

Consistent with what doctors and other responsible professionals have been saying since the "longitude" wave of advertising hit the various media outlets, this article shows that penis enlargement pills, as well as most devices and exercises, are SCAMS.

The ONLY only way to increase penis size without surgery is traction. Even before, after, or between penis-enlargement surgeries, traction is recommended by urological surgeons. Common sense, the medical community, and the laws of anatomy militate against the hoaxters that sell these pills, etc. They are the modern-day snake-oil salesmen taking gullible people for a ride.

Why are some men so concerned about penis size? Well, the truth is that there are probably many different reasons. I recommend learning to be happy and satisfied by what the good Lord gave them. If that doesn't work for them, though, and they want results, they must think of this as another form of "working out." As bench-presses stretch and strain the muscle tissues, allowing new cells to form and "heal" around the old cells of the pectoral muscles, thus increasing size, strength, and stamina, so traction works on the tissues of the penis. One product, the one recommended by Dr. Rothschild (the leading penis enlargement surgeon in the nation), is the Trac-Man offered by a firm called Bio-Tec. In my research of this issue, I have found that there are other products that appear to be operating on the similar principles of traction as the Trac-Man. Absent an official recommendation from a Board-certified surgeon, I hesitate to list them here. Besides that, they are much more costly.

By all means, we need to use our heads. Why do people think they can "work out" with pills? Is this a reflection of our society? Laziness and greed are at work here, and greed will win every time... until it is found out, as it was in the case of the pills in the Reuters article above.