EL PASO, Texas – Dr. Herbert Nassour, a former physician in El Paso, has agreed to pay $350,000 under a civil settlement to resolve allegations he violated certain provisions of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Dr. Nassour was a physician registered with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to prescribe and...

ALBANY, N.Y. – Vivian Letizia, age 63, of Stone Ridge, New York, pled guilty today to acquiring and obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, deception, or subterfuge. The announcement was made by United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Timothy Foley, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the U.S...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Mark Beale, 75, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, pleaded guilty on March 25 in federal court to unlawful dispensing and distributing of a schedule II controlled substance. Beale will remain on conditions of release pending sentencing. A federal grand jury indicted Beale on June 23, 2021. According...

TAMPA, Fla. – On March 16, 2022, Dr. Zachary Bird (51, Tampa) was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison, followed by 1 year of supervised release, for structuring cash transactions to evade bank reporting requirements. As part of his sentence, the Court also entered a money judgment in the...

Houston-A federal jury in the Southern District of Texas convicted a Texas pharmacy owner yesterday for unlawfully distributing controlled substances and laundering money from his now-shuttered pharmacies. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Clint Carr, 32, of Cypress, co-owned and operated CC Pharmacy in Houston, and CC...

CHICAGO – Robert Bell, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration - Chicago Division, announced that on March 3, 2022, DEA Chicago Diversion Investigators served an Immediate Suspension Order on Faris Abusharif, M.D., for allegedly committing acts that render the continued use of his DEA Registration inconsistent...

DANVILLE, Va. – A former registered nurse working at Sovah Health-Danville was sentenced today to 36 months in federal prison for tampering with consumer products (fentanyl and hydromorphone) and making false statements. Emilee Kathryn Poteat, 31, pleaded guilty in May 2021 to one count of tampering with consumer products (fentanyl...

Washington, D.C., -- Today, Jarod Forget, Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the DEA Washington Division, and Michael Rothermund, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Washington Division joined D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Robert J. Contee III to announce a new D.C.-based strategy...

Richland, Wash. – Judith K. Caporiccio, N.D., a Richland-based naturopathic doctor, has agreed to pay $70,096 to resolve allegations under the Controlled Substances Act and the False Claims Act, which allege that she improperly prescribed controlled substances between July 2016 and July 2021. The Controlled Substances Act regulates certain drugs...

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – A federal grand jury in Kansas City returned an indictment charging a pharmacist with one count of tampering with a consumer product, one count of possession of tramadol by deception and subterfuge, one count of possession of zolpidem by deception and subterfuge, and one count of...