ANCHORAGE, ALASKA—Former Advanced Nurse Practitioner Jessica Joyce Spayd (52) was sentenced in U.S. District Court yesterday to 30 years (360 months) imprisonment for illegally prescribing and dispensing opioids outside the scope of legitimate medical practice that resulted in the deaths of five people between 2014 and 2019. United States District...

ST. LOUIS – A man from Seattle, Wash., on Thursday admitted buying 630,000 counterfeit Xanax and other pills on the dark web. Maximillian Gregory Verbowski, 28, pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to sell counterfeit drugs, selling counterfeit drugs and using a fictitious name on mail to commit...

BOISE – Rachel Peay-Goodman, a nurse practitioner in eastern Idaho, consented to judgment against her after admitting that she unlawfully prescribed controlled substances and submitted false claims to Medicare while working for AmeriHealth in Pocatello, announced U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit. The judgment found Peay‑Goodman civilly liable for violating the Controlled...

CAMDEN, N.J. – A Gloucester County, New Jersey, man today admitted defrauding his employer’s health insurance plan out of more than $4 million by submitting fraudulent claims for medically unnecessary compounded medications, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey Division Cheryl Ortiz and Attorney for the...

SALT LAKE CITY – A federal grand jury in Salt Lake City returned an indictment Wednesday charging a Utah man with distribution of fentanyl resulting in death. According to the criminal complaint, Shereldon Cly Yanito, a/k/a “Bobby,” 23, of Grand County, Utah, allegedly sold fentanyl to a victim who overdosed...

BOSTON – A Peabody man has pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston in connection with selling approximately 40,000 fentanyl pills. Manuel E. Tejeda, 42, pleaded guilty on June 2, 2023 to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A California man pleaded guilty in federal court today to smuggling more than 33,000 counterfeit pills that contained nearly four kilograms of fentanyl aboard a bus traveling through Kansas City, Missouri, from Los Angeles, Calif. Matthew J. Gomez, 28, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Howard...

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Steve Lugo Leon, 24, of Phoenix, Arizona, was sentenced last week by United States District Judge G. Murray Snow to 70 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release. Leon pleaded guilty to Possession with Intent to Distribute 40 Grams or More of a Mixture...

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Frank A. Tarentino III, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Ivan J. Arvelo, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of Homeland...

Greenbelt, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte approved the United States’ consent decree with Abtin Youssefi-Rashti, a Montgomery County based pharmacist, and Upton Care Pharmacy, Inc. (“Upton Care”), resolving the United States’ civil allegations that Youssefi-Rashti and Upton Care violated the Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”) in illegally dispensing...