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Maryland Man Sentenced in D.C. to 42 Months in Trafficking Counterfeit Oxycodone

posted 11 days ago
Daijon West, 29, of Prince George’s County, Maryland, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 42 months in connection with a years-long conspiracy to distribute fentanyl-laced counterfeit oxycodone pills in the Washington, D.C., area, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro. West pleaded guilty on Feb. 5, 2026, to conspiracy to distribute fentanyl. In addition to the prison term, Judge Rudolph Contreras ordered West to serve 4 years of supervised release. Federal prosecutors had requested a 68-month prison sentence. According to court papers, West distributed fentanyl-laced counterfeit oxycodone pills in the Washington region during a period ...

Mustang Man Charged with Distributing Synthetic Opioid Resulting in Death

posted 19 days ago
A federal indictment has been unsealed, charging SHANE MICHAEL BURGESS, 24, of Mustang, Oklahoma, with distributing a controlled substance analogue resulting in death, announced United States Attorney Robert J. Troester. According to the Indictment, on December 12, 2025, Burgess distributed a substance containing N-Propionitrile Chlorphine, a synthetic opioid known as cychlorphine, to another individual. The Indictment further alleges that the recipient died as a result of using the cychlorphine distributed by Burgess. On June 2, 2026, a federal grand jury charged Burgess with distribution of a controlled substance analogue resulting in death. If found ...

Nurse Practitioner Convicted for Illegal Distribution of Controlled Substances

posted 21 days ago
A federal jury in the Middle District of Tennessee convicted a Tennessee woman yesterday for illegally distributing controlled substances. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Heather Marks, 43, of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, was an Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner who was licensed by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to distribute controlled substances. Marks prescribed controlled substances to patients seeking pain treatment at Lifeforce Pain and Wellness (Lifeforce), a pain clinic located in Carthage, Tennessee. Lifeforce was a small, rural clinic that purported to provide pain treatment. From September 2016 through May ...

AI Drug Monitoring System Failed to Detect Nurse’s Fentanyl Theft at Tennessee Hospital

posted 22 days ago
An AI-powered medication monitoring system failed to detect months of fentanyl theft by a nurse at Tennessee’s largest hospital in Chattanooga, according to state nursing board records that raise questions about the effectiveness of artificial intelligence systems used in hundreds of American hospitals. Read Article #NurseDiversion #HealthcareDiversion

Large-Scale Counterfeit Pill Manufacturer Sentenced to 13 Years in Federal Prison

posted 25 days ago
Defendant sought to import kilograms of fentanyl precursor chemicals into the U.S. and obtained $40,000 in fraudulent PPP loans BOSTON – A Cambridge, Mass. man was sentenced today in federal court in Boston in connection with an investigation of large-scale manufacturing of counterfeit pills containing fentanyl and methamphetamine. Defendant communicated directly with illegal chemical supplier in China. Schuyler Oppenheimer, a/k/a “SK,” a/k/a “Michael Sylvain,” 35, was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to 13 years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release. In January 2026, Oppenheimer pleaded guilty to one ...

Clinic Manager Convicted of $8M Medicare Fraud Scheme

posted 26 days ago
A federal jury in the Eastern District of New York convicted a New York woman today for her role in an $8 million health care fraud conspiracy. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Olga Popovych, 43, of New York, New York, was an office manager of several physical therapy clinics that paid cash kickbacks to ambulette drivers who recruited Medicare patients to bring to the clinics. As the evidence at trial showed, the defendant was personally involved with paying the ambulette drivers cash kickbacks. She also falsified medical records to indicate that physical therapists who were not actually at the clinic treated the patients. Between ...

Clinic Owner Convicted for $52M Health Care Fraud, Illegal Narcotics Distribution, and Kickback Scheme

posted 05-22-2026
A federal jury in the Eastern District of New York convicted a New York man for his role in conspiracies to commit health care fraud, illegally distribute Suboxone, and pay and receive illegal health care kickbacks. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Tony Brown-Arkah, 78, of New York, New York, was the owner of American Medical Centers (AMC), a medical clinic in Brooklyn that purported to provide substance abuse treatment. AMC lured patients to the clinic by illegally prescribing them Suboxone, a Schedule III narcotic designed to treat opioid use disorder, which, as one witness testified, is commonly abused by prison inmates by boiling ...

Minnesota Health Care Fraud Takedown Results in Charges Against 15 Defendants for Over $90M in Fraud

posted 05-21-2026
National Fraud Enforcement Division announces expansion of Health Care Fraud Section to investigate Medicaid fraud nationwide The Justice Department today announced the Minnesota Health Care Fraud Takedown, which resulted in criminal charges against 15 defendants, including owners of child care centers and various Medicaid providers, for their alleged participation in various fraud schemes involving over $90 million in intended loss, including the two largest Medicaid fraud cases ever charged in the District and first-of-their kind charges involving additional Medicaid programs. The Justice Department also announced a major investment in combatting ...

US CBP officers seize over 32,000 unapproved and potentially dangerous medicines

posted 05-20-2026
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized over 32,000 unapproved prescription tablets in Philadelphia last week that were being smuggled from Europe to an address in Georgia. CBP officers seized 17,000 tramadol tablets on April 30 shipped in an air parcel from the Netherlands, and a mixed cache of medicines on April 29 shipped in an air parcel from London. The London parcel contained 7,500 lorazepam tablets, 2,600 zolpidem tablets, 2,500 diazepam tablets, and 2,500 alprazolam. Read Article #Concealment #Counterfeit #Tramadol #Benzodiazepine #Georgia #SafetyAlerts

California Doctor Convicted of $45M Botox Fraud Scheme Targeting Medicare

posted 05-19-2026
Fraud Division’s Data-Driven Approach Returns Outsized Results for Taxpayers A jury in the Central District of California convicted a California doctor yesterday in a $45 million scheme to defraud Medicare by submitting claims for Botox injections that were never provided and medically unnecessary, and for obstructing the investigation by manipulating and altering medical records in an attempt to mislead criminal investigators. The investigation was initiated as a result of a referral from the Health Care Fraud Section’s Data Analytics Team, after its analysis showed that the defendant was paid more by Medicare for Botox injections than any other ...

Michigan Home Health Care Agency Owner Convicted of $1.6M Medicare Fraud Scheme and Kickback Conspiracy

posted 05-15-2026
A federal jury in the Eastern District of Michigan convicted a Michigan nurse and home health care agency owner yesterday for operating a $1.6 million scheme to defraud Medicare. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Ruby Scott, 55, of Farmington Hills, Michigan, owned and operated Delta Home Health Care LLC (Delta). From 2018 through 2021, Scott bribed a discharge nurse at a Detroit hospital to identify Medicare patients and fax their confidential records to Delta, unbeknownst to the patients. Scott had developed the kickback relationship with the hospital discharge nurse at a home health company she had previously co-owned, but she ...

Dozens Of Pounds Of Ketamine, MDMA, Hundreds Of Pounds Of Fake Pills Seized: Five Busted In Bergenfield, Lodi, Elsewhere

posted 05-14-2026
A joint investigation produced the arrests of five people and the seizure of nearly 20 pounds of Ketamine, 6½ pounds of MDMA and a whopping 641 pounds of counterfeit pills at locations in Bergenfield, Englewood, Lodi and Maywood. The value of the drugs exceeds $4 million, said Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella, whose Narcotic Task Force smashed the drug ring along with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Maywood police. Read Article #Ketamine #Counterfeit #NewJersey #NewYork #Methamphetamine

Owner of Health Care Software Company Convicted of 1 Billion Dollar Medicare Fraud Conspiracy

posted 05-14-2026
A federal jury in the Southern District of Florida convicted the founder and owner of HealthSplash yesterday for his role in operating a platform that generated false doctors’ orders and prescriptions to defraud Medicare and other federal health care benefit programs out of more than $1 billion. “The Department of Justice crushed one of the most egregious fraud schemes in Florida history,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “This illegitimate operation stole more than $1 billion from American taxpayers — including hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries. This was cold, calculated, industrial-scale theft targeting the sick and elderly, coercing ...

Fentanyl ingredients entering Canada via Vancouver en route to cartel-run drug labs, U.S. DEA boss says

posted 05-13-2026
Chemicals used to make fentanyl are streaming into the Port of Vancouver on their way to drug labs run by Mexican cartels on Canadian soil, the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration told senators in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Read Article #Fentanyl #EmergingDrugTrends #DrugTraffickingOrganization(DTO) #Adulterants/Precursors

Texas Doctor Convicted for Illegally Distributing More than a Million Pills

posted 05-04-2026
A federal jury in the Southern District of Texas convicted a Texas physician yesterday for unlawfully distributing more than a million pills of opioids and other dangerous controlled substances. “Medical physicians who exploit their prescribing authority for profit over patient care break an inherent trust with their patients and we will hold them accountable,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “The Department of Justice remains committed to protecting the public from dangerous and unlawful distribution of controlled substances, especially when the drug dealer is a doctor.” “Patients ...

Man Selling Counterfeit Pills Containing Fentanyl on Social Media Receives 21-Year Sentence

posted 05-04-2026
MARTINSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA – Jayden Isaiah Stephon Gill, 22, of Hagerstown, Maryland, was sentenced today to 260 months in prison for selling fentanyl-laced pills online, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew L. Harvey. Officers in Frederick, Maryland, responded to a suspected overdose of two juvenile females and located blue pills imprinted to mimic Oxycodone prescription medication. The pills were analyzed and were found to contain fentanyl. The investigation led to Gill who traveled from Martinsburg, West Virginia to Frederick, Maryland, to sell the pills which the females believed to be Percocet and ordered from Gill’s social media accounts. Gill, along with ...

Moody announces new legislation cracking down on equipment used to make fake pills

posted 05-04-2026
MIAMI — U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody announced new legislation Monday aimed at cracking down on counterfeit drugs. It’s called the “Press Act,” and it would create criminal penalties for illegally importing pill presses -- the equipment used to make fake pills that often end up on our streets. Read Article S.4446 - A bill to amend the Controlled Substances Act to prevent the importation of illicit pill press machines with the intent to counterfeit substances, and for other purposes. #PillPress #NewLegislation #Counterfeit

What is cychlorphine? Fake oxycodone pills may hide deadly synthetic opioids

posted 05-01-2026
Crime lab says the drug has been found in fake oxycodone pills across multiple jurisdictions A new synthetic opioid detected in north Louisiana is raising concern among crime lab officials because of its strength and the way it is being disguised. Read Full Article #Louisiana #EmergingDrugTrends #Cychlorphine #SafetyAlerts

Texas Man Pleads Guilty to Selling Over $8 Million of Dangerous Recreational Drugs Known as “Poppers” That Were Mislabeled as Tape Cleaner

posted 05-01-2026
A Texas man pleaded guilty yesterday to two counts of criminal conspiracy related to misbranding volatile alkyl nitrites, known by their street name as “poppers,” and selling them as inhalants in violation of federal law. Although the labeling for poppers products often misleadingly claims they are sold as cleaning agents, poppers are commonly misused for recreational purposes by being inhaled through the nose. Critically, misuse of volatile alkyl nitrates can cause serious adverse health effects, including irregular heartbeat, vision loss, and death. “The defendant helped sell more than $8 million of dangerous drugs misbranded as cleaning agents, while concealing ...

Burglary at Tri-State pharmacy sparks federal probe into multi-state crime ring

posted 04-30-2026
An early-morning break-in at a small pharmacy last summer in Dearborn County helped crack open a large-scale organized pharmacy burglary investigation spanning multiple states. Read Article #PharmacyBurglary/Robbery #DrugTraffickingOrganization(DTO) #Indiana #Ohio #Idaho