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...

FRESNO, Calif. — Ifeanyi Vincent Ntukogu, 49, of Fresno, was sentenced today to seven years and three months in prison for illegally distributing oxycodone and hydrocodone. Ntukogu was a pharmacist in Madera who dispensed more than 450,000 oxycodone and hydrocodone pills based on fraudulent prescriptions, all in exchange for cash...

Baltimore, Maryland – Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland and Jarod Forget, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Washington Division, announced that their agencies have formed the Maryland Fatal Fentanyl Overdose Task Force (“MFFOTF”). The alarming rate of overdoses in Maryland has...

HOUSTON - Charges have been unsealed as part of a larger enforcement action related to the unlawful distribution of nearly 70 million opioid pills and over 30 million doses of other commonly abused prescription drugs to alleged Houston-area pill-mill pharmacies. Three Houston-area pharmacy operators were also charged for their role...

A long-term undercover investigation resulted in the arrest of a New Jersey man in connection with sales of eight guns, cocaine and “pink cocaine” in locations across Manhattan. Laboratory analysis of the “pink cocaine,” also known by the street name “tusi,” indicated the presence of ketamine and MDMA. Bridget G...

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho--Scott Higgins, 57, of Coeur d’Alene, was sentenced yesterday on charges for theft from a program receiving federal funds and acquiring controlled substances by fraud, U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit announced today. Both charges relate to a drug diversion scheme that Higgins carried out over multiple years while employed...

Washington - The Justice Department today announced a 10-count superseding indictment charging Los Angeles-based associates of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel with conspiring with money-laundering groups linked to Chinese underground banking to launder drug trafficking proceeds. During the conspiracy, more than $50 million in drug proceeds flowed between the Sinaloa Cartel...

POCATELLO – Dr. Gerald Knouf, a family medicine doctor formerly of Pocatello, Idaho, agreed to pay $96,000 to resolve allegations that he wrote unlawful prescriptions, prescribed dangerous combinations of drugs, and billed Medicare and Medicaid for services that were not performed, U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit announced today. The settlement also...

OAKLAND, Calif. – Parto Karimi, a former Bay Area doctor, has been sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison for distributing powerful opioids outside the scope of medical practice, announced United States Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), San Francisco Field Division, Special Agent...

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Danielle Simonson, age 52, of Fort Ann, New York, was sentenced today to 70 months in prison for distributing controlled substances outside the course of professional practice and for no legitimate medical purpose. United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman; Special Agent in Charge Frank A. Tarentino...