A pharmacist who owned and operated a retail pharmacy in Madera pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of California to conspiring to distribute and distributing oxycodone and hydrocodone. Court records describe a scheme running from December 2014 through November 2018 in Madera and Fresno, in which the pharmacist dispensed more than 200,000 oxycodone and hydrocodone pills on prescriptions brought to him by two co-defendants. All three knew the prescriptions were forged and fraudulent.
According to the press release, the pharmacist screened each prescription and rejected those he thought regulators might flag, such as prescriptions written by certain doctors or for people who were also filling prescriptions at other pharmacies. He also alerted the co-defendants when the required language on prescription pads changed. He required cash payment for the pills and raised his price over time.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the California Department of Health Care Services. One co-defendant had already been convicted and sentenced to nine years and four months in prison. The pharmacist and the second co-defendant were scheduled for sentencing on September 23, 2024, each facing a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine per count, with the actual sentence left to the court under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.