“PILL MILL” DISTRIBUTOR PLEADS GUILTY TO
CONSPIRACY TO DISTRIBUTE
OXYCODONE
Abuse of Oxycodone Pills Contributes to Epidemic of
Heroin Overdose Deaths
The guilty pleas was announced by United States Attorney
for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Karl C.
Colder of the Drug Enforcement Administration - Washington Field Division;
Special Agent in Charge Nicholas DiGiulio, Office of Investigations, Office of
Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services; Chief Gary
Gardner of the Howard County Police Department; Charles County Sheriff Troy
Berry; St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron;
Chief Hank Stawinski of the Prince George’s County Police Department; Calvert
County Sheriff Mike Evans; Chief Cathy L. Lanier of the Metropolitan Police
Department; Commissioner Kevin Davis of the Baltimore Police Department; Chief
James W. Johnson of the Baltimore County Police Department; and Colonel W.
Steven Flaherty, Superintendent of the Virginia State Police.
“Pharmaceutical pills can be just as harmful as illegal
drugs when they are used without proper medical supervision and without valid
medical need,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “Abuse of oxycodone is one
of our most significant drug enforcement challenges, and it contributes to the
epidemic of heroin overdose deaths.”
“Last year, DEA and its partners combined their resources
to identify these drug dealers who cunningly attempted to bypass the Maryland
Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (CRISP). The result of these efforts was
the dismantling of a drug trafficking organization that was making a toxic
profit off of addiction. These “runners” and “distributors” were allowing a
countless number of highly addictive prescription opioids to hit the streets of
Maryland, Delaware, Washington, DC, and Virginia,” said Special Agent in Charge
Karl C. Colder of the Drug Enforcement Administration - Washington Field
Division. “The DEA wants to thank our law enforcement partners for their
unwavering commitment to eradicating these drug dealers, who are destroying
lives and making enormous profits from the diversion of pain
medication.”
According to court documents, “pill mills,” routinely
engage in the practice of prescribing and dispensing controlled substances -
primarily oxycodone - outside the scope of professional practice and without a
legitimate medical purpose. The owners kept the profits from the pill mill
operations and from the sales of oxycodone in cash. According to the
indictments, the owners recruited “distributors” and “runners” to visit their
clinics so that they would profit from the cash fees charged for an office
visit. Runners are recruited - usually by a distributor - to enter pill mill
clinics with fictitious complaints of pain in order to obtain prescriptions for
oxycodone and other controlled substances. Typically, runners filled the
prescription and gave the oxycodone tablets they received to the distributor.
Runners were typically paid in either cash or oxycodone tablets for their
services. The distributors then generally sold the pills for a
profit.
According to his plea agreement, since at least 2014,
Moffett conspired with other individuals to distribute oxycodone. During the
course of the conspiracy, Moffett obtained large quantities of oxycodone 30 mg
pills by visiting pain clinics, including PG Wellness Center, in Oxon Hill,
Maryland, and A Plus Pain Center, in Washington, DC, and getting prescriptions
from the doctors working there. Moffett also worked with others to go to the
clinics to obtain prescriptions for oxycodone, also without a medical need.
Those individuals then filled the prescriptions at various pharmacies in the
Maryland, Delaware, Washington, D.C., and Virginia areas and provided the pills
to Moffett and other conspirators. Moffett, who was an addict, took some of the
pills himself and sold the remaining pills to co-conspirators for a profit.
Those co-conspirators then re-sold the oxycodone pills for up to $30 per pill.
Obtaining and filling the prescriptions for oxycodone
required a significant amount of coordination between Moffett and his
co-conspirators. For example, they had to ensure that individuals were not
caught getting oxycodone prescriptions from multiple clinics at the same time.
The Maryland Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (known as CRISP) allowed
practitioners to report all narcotic prescriptions so that other practitioners
could make sure that patients were not obtaining multiple prescriptions.
Moffett and other members of the conspiracy regularly sought to circumvent the
limitations imposed by CRISP and other states’ prescription drug monitoring
programs. During the course of the conspiracy, investigators overheard Moffett
discussing with others conspirators the details of his and others’ visits to the
clinics, filling the prescriptions, and distributing the pills.
During Moffett’s participation in the conspiracy at least
340,000 mgs of oxycodone were distributed.
U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis scheduled sentencing
for Moffett on August 12, 2016 at 10:00 a.m.
Co-defendants Danielle Silberstein, age 32, of Waldorf;
Peter Snyder, age 35, of Ocean City, Maryland; Robert Long, age 35, of
Mechanicsville, Maryland; Jamie Davis, age 29, of LaPlata, Maryland; Ronald
Tennyson, age 33, of Mechanicsville; Terrell Downing, age 26, of New Carrollton,
Maryland; and John Fields, age 67, of Temple Hills, Maryland, previously pleaded
guilty to the conspiracy and are awaiting sentencing. Ronald Rust, age 45, of
Alexandria, Virginia, also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years in
prison. Co-defendant Melissa Catlett, age 39, of King George, Virginia passed
away before her case was adjudicated.
United
States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the DEA Tactical Diversion Squads from
Baltimore and Washington DC., HHS-Office of Inspector General, Howard County
Police Department, Charles County Sheriff’s Office, St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s
Office, Prince George’s County Police Department, Calvert County Sheriff’s
Office, Metropolitan Police Department, Baltimore County Police Department,
Baltimore City Police Department, and Virginia State Police for their work in
this pharmaceutical investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United
States Attorneys Kenneth S. Clark and Joshua Ferrentino, who are prosecuting
this Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force case.