Case Database
Filter every documented case by date, drug, state, setting, role, prosecution status, and penalty. Search accepts brand or generic drug names, facility names, and cities.
Showing 9 of 730 cases.
| Case / When | Where | Setting | Drug | Method | Role | Prosecution status | Penalty | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Hospital nurse anesthetist accused of diverting fentanyl and propofol intended for surgical patients
2024-01
|
New Mexico Las Vegas, NM |
a regional hospital | fentanyl and propofol | Accused of diverting fentanyl and propofol intended for patients' surgical pain control for his own use, and of going to extreme lengths to avoid drug testing after colleagues raised concerns. | not stated | Board of Nursing settlement reported to include two years of probation, quarterly supervisor reports, and random drug testing; an earlier proposed settlement had included 28 days of rehab, five years of probation, and more frequent drug testing. | none documented | source |
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New Mexico pharmacy settles federal claims after DEA inspections could not account for over 24,000 controlled-substance doses
2022-07-12
|
New Mexico | Independent retail pharmacy, Peralta, New Mexico | Controlled substances, majority opioid analgesics; 24,422 doses unaccounted for | not stated | Retail pharmacy and its owner (DEA registrant) | not stated | none documented | source |
|
Ready Pharmacy Pays $400K Over 26,000 Missing Controlled Substance Units
2022-02-01
|
New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico |
Ready Pharmacy, retail pharmacy, now closed (Albuquerque, NM) | Controlled substances — 26,000+ missing dosage units | Failed to account for missing dosage units found Mar 15, 2016; DEA on-site inspection also found controlled substances unsafeguarded and improperly stored | not stated | Civil settlement, $400,000 (initial $50,000 + $350,000 over 5 years) — announced Feb 2022 | $400,000 (civil settlement) | source |
|
Physician allegedly took back patients' prescribed controlled substances for personal use and falsified records to justify prescribing
2017-07
|
New Mexico Moriarty, NM |
private medical practice | opioid drugs | State medical board alleged the physician resumed personal unlawful use of opioid drugs, thwarted required drug screenings, diverted controlled substances he had prescribed to patients back from those patients for his own personal use, and falsified medical records to justify the prescribing of controlled substances. | not stated | DEA revoked the physician's DEA Certificate of Registration and denied any pending applications after the state medical board summarily suspended his medical license | none documented | source |
|
Physician accused of taking back prescribed opioids from patients for personal use and falsifying records
2017-07
|
New Mexico Moriarty, NM |
Moriarty, NM | opioid drugs / controlled substances | Alleged to have resumed personal use of opioid drugs, prescribed large and varied amounts of controlled substances to patients without adequate medical justification, taken back controlled substances he had prescribed to patients for his own personal use, and falsified medical records to justify the prescribing | not stated | DEA revoked his Certificate of Registration; revocation was based on the resulting suspension of his state medical license, not on an adjudication of the diversion allegations, which remained contested and pending before the state medical board | none documented | source |
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Carlsbad Pharmacy Technician Pleads Guilty to Stealing Oxycodone
2016-12-20
|
New Mexico Carlsbad, New Mexico |
Southwest Pharmacy (Carlsbad, NM) | Oxycodone — approximately 20,344 tablets alleged stolen over the employment period | Pharmacy technician took pills directly from stock bottles for personal use | not stated | Pleaded guilty Dec 20, 2016 to misdemeanor unlawful possession of a controlled substance | $1,000 (criminal fine) | source |
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New Mexico pharmacy technician pleaded guilty after oxycodone theft report from Carlsbad pharmacy
2016-12-20
|
New Mexico | Retail pharmacy in Carlsbad, Eddy County | Oxycodone tablets | not stated | Pharmacy technician | not stated | none documented | source |
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New Mexico pharmacy technician charged federally after 20,000-plus oxycodone tablets reported stolen
2016-09-23
|
New Mexico | Retail pharmacy, Carlsbad, New Mexico | Oxycodone tablets of various strengths; pharmacy reported 20,344 tablets stolen | not stated | Pharmacy technician (former employee of the pharmacy) | not stated | none documented | source |
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Psychiatrist found to have unlawfully possessed controlled substances taken back from patients and kept no required records
2013-09
|
New Mexico Albuquerque, NM |
private psychiatric practice | controlled substances including fentanyl patches, oxycodone, OxyContin, methadone, Suboxone, hydrocodone, benzodiazepines, and Lyrica samples | Took back and retained already-dispensed controlled substances directly from patients outside the CSA's closed distribution system, and failed to maintain any inventory or records of the controlled substances he received or the drug samples kept in his office; a separate allegation that he redistributed these drugs to other patients was investigated but found unproven. | not stated | DEA registration renewal granted subject to a six-month suspension and restriction to non-narcotic controlled substances only; DATA-Waiver authority to prescribe Suboxone/Subutex revoked. | none documented | source |
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What each column does and doesn't cover
Every case states When (date) and Where (state) — 730 of 730. Beyond that, a blank cell means the source record does not state that fact, not that it did not happen:
- Setting: stated in 649 of 730 cases (89%)
- Drug: stated in 657 of 730 cases (90%)
- Method: stated in 474 of 730 cases (65%)
- Prosecution status: stated in 474 of 730 cases (65%); a documented penalty (fine, settlement, or restitution) exists for 77 of 730 cases (11%)
- Role: stated in only 255 of 730 cases (35%) — filtering or sorting by role silently hides the rest of the registry, which may still describe the same role in prose without a structured field
Why: documented failure modes
A separate text analysis of the 723 case summaries found 371 cases (51.3%) matching at least one named failure-mode pattern below. 352 cases (48.7% of 723) matched none of these categories - most of these are short board-order summaries ("licensee diverted controlled substances from their employer") that state an outcome without describing a mechanism, not cases where no failure occurred. A case can match zero, one, or several categories — these are corpus-level counts, not a per-case tag, and are not used as a row filter above: reproducing the exact category membership per case from the stored patterns did not exactly match this file's hand-curated counts on independent re-check, so no individual case here is labeled with a "why" that this code cannot verify.
Text names an act of replacing/refilling the drug with a named substitute (saline, water, an OTC pill, a cleaning product, etc.), OR uses swap/dilute/tamper to describe the same act, so the altered container went back into use looking unchanged.
Text uses stole/stealing/embezzled to describe removal of controlled substances.
Text uses a form of "falsif-" within 60 characters of a record-type noun (chart, inventory, transaction, receipt, prescription, etc.).
Text explicitly characterizes the prescription(s) as fraudulent, forged, invalid, or issued outside legitimate medical practice (including "pill mill" language).
Text names an automated dispensing cabinet/machine, or the acronym ADC, as part of the mechanism.
Text describes recording or claiming drug as "waste" (when it was not), pulling drug from a waste stream, or wastage that was not independently witnessed.
Text describes cancelling, voiding, or falsely entering a system transaction (an order, a return-to-stock entry, a cancel entry) specifically to conceal a removal.
Text states the FACILITY (not an individual concealing personal use) failed to maintain required inventory/records, or names a recordkeeping violation/negligent recordkeeping as the basis for the government action.
Text describes using a fictitious patient profile, a false name/identity, stolen patient information, or impersonating a licensed prescriber to obtain the drug.
Text states a failure to notify or report a loss, theft, or suspected diversion to a regulator.
Disclaimer
Case summaries are based on public records (DOJ press releases, court documents, news reports). Charges are allegations unless a conviction is noted. Analysis is educational, not legal advice.
Last reviewed: September 2026 · Content is educational, not legal advice.