United States Drug Enforcement Administration

WASHINGTON – A federal court ordered an Elkin, North Carolina, pharmacy to pay a $500,000 penalty and enjoined the pharmacy and its pharmacists from dispensing controlled substances, including opioids, without taking steps to help ensure the drugs will not be abused or diverted. The consent decree resolves a complaint filed...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A North Carolina physician appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan C. Rodriguez this morning on charges related to the alleged unlawful distribution of a controlled substance, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. A criminal indictment charging Henry Ronald Emery, Jr...

NEW BERN, N.C. – A three-judge panel from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a unanimous, published opinion affirming former physician Jong Whan Kim’s conviction and sentence for operating a pill mill in Tabor City. The Fourth Circuit’s decision was the first published opinion by the Court upholding a...

RALEIGH, N.C. – A former Fuquay-Varina nurse was sentenced today to 48 months in prison and three years of supervised release for tampering with painkillers intended for surgery patients. On March 9, 2022, Melissa Elizabeth Chacona pled guilty to the charges. “Surgical patients trust healthcare providers to give them the...

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Savitz Drug Store, Inc., has agreed to pay $275,000 to resolve allegations that it committed recordkeeping and dispensing violations of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). These requirements are designed to prevent the diversion of controlled substances. This civil settlement includes a corrective action plan and is the...

BRUNSWICK, GA: Two men from Canada and the United Kingdom have been indicted in the Southern District of Georgia on federal charges alleging an international operation used the Dark Web to distribute illegal drugs in the United States, with some of those drugs resulting in the deaths of two U.S...

DURHAM, N.C. – Aspirar Pharmacy, LLC and Aspirar Pharmacy of Durham, LLC (collectively Aspirar Pharmacy), located in Cary and Durham, North Carolina, respectively, have agreed to pay the United States $100,000 to resolve allegations that they violated the Controlled Substances Act from 2017-2018 by filling prescriptions for a physician who...

WILMINGTON, N.C. – A Washington, North Carolina man was sentenced yesterday to 240 months in prison for the distribution of fentanyl and an associated firearm violation. On June 24, 2021, Dylan Hunter Holcomb pled guilty to charges including conspiring to distribute fentanyl, possessing with intent to distribute fentanyl, and possessing...

ATLANTA - Thomas Ukoshovbera A. Gbenedio has been convicted by a federal jury of illegally dispensing and distributing controlled substances from his pharmacy. “Removing and ultimately eliminating healthcare providers who unlawfully dispense pharmaceutical products for non-medical reasons is an important part of DEA’s mission,” said Special Agent in Charge of...

SAVANNAH, GA: A North Carolina man who ordered and illegally sold highly addictive opioids through the Dark Web has been sentenced to federal prison. Wesley McKeehan, 34, of Salisbury, N.C., was sentenced to 26 months in prison after pleading guilty to Distribution of Oxycodone, said David H. Estes, Acting U.S...