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DEA Launches Fentanyl Free America Initiative to Combat the Synthetic Drug Crisis

posted 3 days ago
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is intensifying its fight against the deadly threat of synthetic opioids with the launch of Fentanyl Free America, a comprehensive enforcement initiative and public awareness campaign aimed at reducing both the supply and demand for fentanyl. This effort underscores DEA's unwavering commitment to protecting American lives and communities from the devastating impacts of fentanyl, which claimed nearly 50,000 lives last year according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Through intensified enforcement operations and heightened intelligence, DEA is applying unprecedented pressure on the ...

Texas Man Charged with Conspiracy to Obtain Controlled Substances by Fraud

posted 3 days ago
A federal grand jury in the Middle District of Louisiana returned an indictment today charging a Texas man with a scheme to obtain controlled substances from multiple pharmacies using fraudulent prescriptions and then sell those drugs on the street. According to court documents, Darrion Denard Brooks, 28, of Houston, and co-conspirators, used fictitious identification information to obtain fraudulent prescriptions for controlled substances on behalf of patients who either did not exist or for whom medical providers did not authorize the prescriptions. As alleged in the indictment, from November 2023 through March 2025, Brooks and his co-conspirators fraudulently ...

Georgia Man Sentenced for $24M Kickback and Medicare Fraud Conspiracy

posted 4 days ago
A Georgia man was sentenced today to 46 months in prison and ordered to pay over $7.2 million in restitution for his role in a scheme to pay and receive illegal kickbacks in exchange for inducing Medicare beneficiaries to accept medically unnecessary genetic tests. According to court documents, Patrick C. Moore Jr., 48, of Peachtree City, engaged in a kickback scheme in which he instructed a network of recruiters to target and induce Medicare beneficiaries to accept genetic tests that were not medically necessary, not provided as represented or not eligible for reimbursement. Moore received approximately $4.3 million in kickbacks and bribes from his co-conspirators ...

Justice Department Seizes Unlawful 7-OH Opioid Products at Three Warehouses

posted 4 days ago
The Justice Department, together with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), announced today that recent actions targeting illegal products containing 7-hydroxymitragine, commonly known as 7-OH, resulted in the seizure of approximately 73,000 units of product at three warehouses. In seizure complaints and accompanying court papers filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, the government alleged that two firms in the Kansas City area received warnings from FDA that 7-OH products were illegal under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. According to the seizure complaints, recent FDA inspections showed that the firms continued ...

Nurse Practitioner Sentenced to 18 Months and Ordered to Pay over $160,000 in Restitution for Health Care Fraud and Unlawful Drug Distribution

posted 5 days ago
Defendant Also Settled False Claims Act Liability by Separate Payment of $188,850 ALBANY, NEW YORK – Acting United States Attorney John A. Sarcone III announced today that Anja Salamack, age 50, of Delray Beach, Florida, was sentenced in late October to 18 months in prison and a one-year period of home detention for submitting false and fraudulent claims to health care benefit programs and for issuing prescriptions for a controlled substance for non-medical purposes and outside the usual course of profession practice. The charges were part of the Department of Justice’s 2025 National Health Care Fraud Takedown. Salamack, formerly an Albany resident, ...

Police officer shoots, kills armed man at Walgreens in Maryland Heights

posted 5 days ago
A Maryland Heights police officer shot and killed an armed man inside a local Walgreens store late Sunday afternoon. The shooting happened just after 6 p.m. inside the store, located in the 12500 block of Dorsett Road, according to a statement from the St. Louis County Police Department. Read Full Article #Missouri #PharmacyBurglary/Robbery

Are Dispensers Ready for DSCSA? With Enforcement Approaching, Questions—and Gaps—Remain

posted 10 days ago
As the Nov. 27 Drug Supply Chain Security Act ( DSCSA ) enforcement date arrives for large dispensers (pharmacies with ≥26 full-time employees), health-system and specialty pharmacy leaders are asking the obvious question: Are we ready? Manufacturers and wholesale distributors reached their enforcement deadlines earlier this year, with manufacturers required to exchange serialized package-level data as of May 27 and distributors following on Aug. 27. In theory, that means dispensers should now be receiving complete DSCSA data for every unit of prescription product entering their facilities. In practice, experts say readiness has improved, but inconsistencies ...

Michigan Pharmacist Sentenced to 46 Months in Prison for $4M Health Care Fraud Scheme

posted 12 days ago
A former Michigan pharmacist was sentenced today to 46 months in prison for his role in a health care fraud scheme at a pharmacy he operated. He was also ordered to pay $4 million in restitution and to forfeit four real estate properties and $726,364.96. According to court documents, from approximately 2011 to 2017, Nabil Fakih, 50, of Wayne County, billed Medicare for prescription medications that he did not dispense at the pharmacy he owned and operated in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. As part of the scheme, Fakih submitted fraudulent claims for reimbursement to Medicare for high-reimbursing prescription medications, such as blood thinners and lung disease ...

Mississippi Businessman Pleads Guilty to $19M Health Care Fraud Conspiracy

posted 16 days ago
A Mississippi businessman pleaded guilty today to participating in a scheme to defraud Medicare by paying kickbacks for fraudulent doctors’ orders and then using those orders to bill the government insurer over $19 million through seven different durable medical equipment (DME) supply companies. According to court documents, Willie De Gibbs, 53, of Toomsuba, Mississippi, and Cutler Bay, Florida, was the sole owner of three DME supply companies and was the beneficial owner of and controlled, sometimes through straw owners, four other DME supply companies. He sought to defraud Medicare by submitting fraudulent claims for medically unnecessary orthotic braces ...

Drug Trafficker Zhi Dong Zhang, aka “Brother Wang,” Returned from Mexico to Face International Narcotics and Money Laundering Charges in New York and Georgia

posted 17 days ago
Defendant Allegedly Led a Large Scale Narcotics Trafficking and Money Laundering Organization That Operated Throughout Mexico and the United States Zhi Dong Zhang, also known as “GG,” “Kun Li Hernandez,” “Chang Li Gong Sun,” “Memo,” “Brother Wang,” “BW,” “Pancho,” “HeHe,” “HaHa,” “Chino,” and “Summor Ownor,” 38, was arraigned today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Clay H. Kaminsky for the Eastern District of New York at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, on a second superseding indictment (the Indictment) charging him with international cocaine distribution conspiracy, international cocaine distribution, cocaine importation conspiracy, cocaine ...

False bills, expired meds: Anchorage doctor pleads guilty in $12M fraud scheme

posted 17 days ago
An Anchorage rheumatologist and her husband have pleaded guilty to running a years-long healthcare fraud scheme that prosecutors say brought in more than $12 million and involved lying to patients about what substances they were being injected with, billing insurers for medications they never purchased and evading federal taxes. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Dr. Claribel Tan, 61, and her husband, Daniel Tan, 70, operated a rheumatology clinic in Anchorage and admitted to defrauding health insurance companies and evading more than $4 million in taxes on the profits of the scheme. Dr. Tan treated autoimmune and musculoskeletal conditions and administered ...

Founder/CEO and Clinical President of Digital Health Company Convicted in $100M Adderall Distribution and Health Care Fraud Scheme

posted 17 days ago
A federal jury in San Francisco yesterday convicted Ruthia He, the founder and CEO of Done, a California-based digital health company, and David Brody, its clinical president, for their roles in a years-long scheme to illegally distribute Adderall over the internet and conspire to commit health care fraud in connection with the submission of false and fraudulent claims for reimbursement for Adderall and other stimulants. Ruthia He was also convicted of conspiring to obstruct justice. “These defendants carried out a $100 million scheme to unlawfully provide easy online access to Adderall and other stimulants by targeting drug seekers, engaging in deceptive advertising, ...

Thirteen Measures by China's Narcotics Control Office to Prevent Diversion of Chemicals for Drug Manufacturing

posted 17 days ago
On November 10, 2025, the Office of the China's Narcotics Control Commission issued the Notice on Preventing the Diversion of Substances and Non-Scheduled Chemicals and Equipment Used in Drug Manufacturing, aiming to strengthen the control of substances used in drug production in accordance with the law. Read Full Article #EmerginingDrugTrend #NewLegislation #International

Fake Ozempic, Zepbound booms despite serious health risks

posted 18 days ago
In the US alone, 12% of the population have reported using injectable weight loss drugs, such as Wegovy/Ozempic, Zepbound and Saxenda, over the past year. That's more than double the number recorded in early 2024. In European countries, demand is also on the rise: In the UK, for example, a survey found that 21% of the public had accessed an online or in-person pharmacy in the past year to obtain weight loss medication. Germans, for example, have also been keen to adopt the drugs, even if they have to pay for them themselves, according to a report by Reuters. Read Article #Counterfeit #GLP-1

Corporation and Former Chief Executive Officer Sentenced for Health Care Fraud and Tax Conspiracy

posted 18 days ago
KBWB Operations LLC, doing business as Atrium Health and Senior Living (KBWB-Atrium), and Kevin Breslin, former chief executive officer and managing member of KBWB-Atrium, were sentenced yesterday, in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin following prior guilty pleas to health care fraud and tax conspiracy related to the operation of numerous skilled nursing facilities, the Department of Justice announced. Kevin Breslin, 58, of Hoboken, New Jersey, was sentenced to 90 months in prison and ordered to pay $146 million in restitution and $8.4 million in forfeiture. KBWB-Atrium also was ordered to pay the same restitution and forfeiture amounts. ...

New York Man Sentenced to 54 Months in Prison for Selling Counterfeit Xanax on Dark Web

posted 18 days ago
A 31-year-old man who sold counterfeit Xanax on the dark web, both before and after he was indicted for doing so, was sentenced to 54 months in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Audrey G. Fleissig. “I hope you understand that you put people’s lives at risk,” Judge Fleissig told John Cruz. Cruz, of Rochester, N.Y., pleaded guilty on two occasions in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of conspiracy to misbrand, introduce misbranded drugs and sell counterfeit drugs: Nov. 29, 2023, and July 1, 2024. Cruz admitted purchasing counterfeit Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, on the darknet and then reselling it from at least October 2019 through May 2021. ...

Four California Residents Sentenced to Prison in Connection with $16M Hospice Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme

posted 18 days ago
Four California residents were sentenced to prison for their roles in defrauding Medicare of nearly $16 million through sham hospice companies and laundering the fraudulent proceeds. Yesterday, Juan Carlos Esparza, 33, of Valley Village, was sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $1,825,012, and Susanna Harutyunyan, 39, of Winnetka, was sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $2,822,963. In October 2025, Karpis Srapyan, 35, of Winnetka, was sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $3,203,574. In September 2025, Mihran Panosyan, 47, of Winnetka, was sentenced to 57 months in ...

Fake medicine webshop linked to at least 27 deaths, court told

posted 19 days ago
Two men who ran a webshop called Funcaps which sold fake and illegal medicine to the general public are involved in the deaths of at least 27 people, the public prosecution department said on Monday. Jord van W and Stefan P, aged 31 and 30 and both from Limburg, have been charged with earning millions of euros from the sale of fake tranquilisers and sleeping pills which are only available on prescription, as well as designer drugs. #Counterfeit #PatientHarm #International

NYS Cracks Down on Medical Transportation Companies for Fraud

posted 19 days ago
In October, two medical transportation companies were charged with or indicted for fraud in New York. The owner of Pearl Transit Corp. (“Pearl”), Jael Watts, was accused of running a sham transportation service that supposedly provided rides for persons with disabilities and seniors in Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, and Suffolk counties. In 2024, the company was awarded a contract with the New York State Department of Transportation that was funded by a grant through the Federal Transit Administration. Under the grant, Pearl was required to submit certain documentation for services provided. Investigators found that Pearl submitted three false invoices totaling ...

1.7 million counterfeit fentanyl pills found in auctioned-off storage unit in Colorado: DEA

posted 19 days ago
A winning bidder of a Colorado storage unit unexpectedly found more than 1 million counterfeit fentanyl pills inside in a record-breaking narcotics seizure, federal authorities announced Monday. The bidder made the "shocking discovery" on Nov. 11 at a suburban Denver storage facility, according to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. Read Article #Counterfeit #Fentanyl #Colorado