Giving Advice Can Be Part Of A Drug Trafficking Conspiracy

Most of the legal drugs mentioned at indictments, arraignments, and criminal trials are legal in some circumstances.  Schedule I drugs, such as heroin and MDMA, are always illegal, but the other four schedules of controlled substances include pharmaceutical drugs that are medically useful enough to have legally approved medical applications but dangerous enough that it is a crime to possess them outside of medically indicated contexts.  For example, oxycodone, the main ingredient of the opioid epidemic during the infamous pill mill era, is a Schedule II controlled substance.  Doctors can administer it to hospitalized patients and write prescriptions for patients to take it on an outpatient basis.  Doctors and other professionals with access to prescription drugs with a high potential for abuse can face criminal charges if there is evidence that they distributed the drugs knowing that the recipient would use them recreationally or resell them.  Criminal cases like these are less common in Florida than they were before Florida’s pill mills closed about a decade ago, but they still happen sometimes.  If you are facing conspiracy charges for facilitating the transfer of pharmaceutical drugs in an ostensibly legal context, contact a Tampa drug crime lawyer.

Floridians Indicted for Facilitating Sale of Addictive Drugs to Texas Pill Mill

Federal courts in several states have issued indictments for ten defendants that they claim participated in a conspiracy to supply drugs to pharmacies in and around Houston, Texas, which prosecutors claim are pill mills.  The drugs seized during the investigation that led to these criminal charges include more than 70 million prescription opioid pills with high potential for recreational use, including rapid release hydromorphone, hydrocodone, and oxycodone.  They also include more than 30 million doses of drugs such as carisoprodol, alprazolam, and promethazine cough syrup; all of these are widely used recreationally in conjunction with prescription opioids.

One of the Floridian defendants owns and operates a company in Miami that sells pharmaceutical drugs on a wholesale basis.  The other four Floridian defendants are pharmaceutical sales representatives accused of helping him find a destination for the pills and negotiating a price much higher than he would have received if he had sold the pills to a legitimate pharmacy.  One of them allegedly advised the owner of the Miami wholesale facility on how to keep records that gave the appearance of legal compliance, so that he could avoid criminal investigations and audits by regulators.

Several defendants in this case, which also includes cases in Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Missouri, have pleaded guilty.  If you are charged with conspiracy charges, you have the right to plead not guilty even if your alleged co-conspirators plead guilty.  The courts consider due process of law regarding each individual defendant, and you may be able to demonstrate that the evidence does not clearly connect you to the crime.

Contact Tampa Criminal Defense Attorney Bryant Scriven

A criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are facing criminal charges for providing drugs to a pill mill.  Contact Scriven Law in Tampa, Florida to schedule a consultation.

Source:

justice.gov/opa/pr/ten-pharmaceutical-distributor-executives-sales-representatives-and-brokers-charged