FORT WORTH, TX - Forty-nine defendants, including two doctors and five pharmacists, have been charged with participating in an $18 million pill mill scheme, announced by the DEA Dallas Field Division. “Medical professionals hold the public’s trust to provide what is in the best interests of their patients,” said DEA...

ALBANY, N.Y. - Vivian Letizia, age 62, of Stone Ridge, New York, was arrested yesterday on a criminal complaint charging her with illegally dispensing controlled substances outside the course of professional practice and for no legitimate medical purpose. The announcement was made by Ray Donovan, Special Agent in Charge of...

WASHINGTON – Today, the Department of Justice, through the Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement team, joined Europol to announce the results of Operation DisrupTor, a coordinated international effort to disrupt opioid trafficking on the Darknet. The operation, which was conducted across the United States and Europe, demonstrates the continued...

FRESNO, Calif. — Jorge Luis Velasquez, 33, of Mexico, Omar Velazquez Landeros, 27, of Bakersfield, and Victor Romero Galvan, 29, of Mexico, were indicted today for conspiring and possessing with intent to distribute over 10,000 counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl and approximately 10 pounds of methamphetamine, and for carrying...

TULSA, Okla. – DEA Special Agent in Charge Eduardo A. Chavez of the Dallas Field Division, announced that Tulsa physician Dr. Christopher V. Moses pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma to conspiring to distribute controlled substances, as well as maintaining a drug involved...

BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Earlier today, in federal court in Central Islip, Tameshwar Ammar, a former medical doctor in Roslyn, New York, pleaded guilty via teleconference to conspiring to illegally distribute oxycodone. Ammar was indicted in November 2019. On June 22, 2020, he relinquished his license to practice medicine. Today’s plea...

GAINESVILLE, Ga. - John Michael “Mike” Gowder, James Heaton, and George David Gowder have been sentenced to federal prison. Both Mike Gowder and Heaton were convicted on October 24, 2019, after a two-week jury trial on 102 counts related to illegally prescribing and obtaining more than 15,000 doses of prescription...

CHICAGO – Special Agent in Charge Robert J. Bell, DEA Chicago Division, announced today that the DEA Merrillville Resident Office and their state and local counterparts arrested the following defendants: Geoffrey O. Onyeukwu, MD, 69, Gary, Indiana; Nurse Practitioner Akeem O. Kareem, 47, Crown Point, Indiana; and Nurse Practitioner Francis...

BRUNSWICK, Ga. - A pharmacist who owned and ran Fulghum Pharmacy in Baxley, Ga. was sentenced today to 48 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to a conspiracy that involved health care fraud and illegal distribution of opioids. Ray Ashley Dixon, R.Ph., 42, of Baxley, Georgia, was sentenced by...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Rhiannon Rader (34, St. Marys, Georgia) was sentenced to five years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute oxycodone, hydrocodone, and alprazolam (Xanax). Rader had pleaded guilty on October 29, 2019. According to court documents, as an employee of a Jacksonville Beach physician’s office, Rader had access...