Houston physician accused of prescribing millions of opioid pills illegally

A Texas physician has been charged in connection with operating a cash-only clinic in Houston that allegedly contributed to the distribution of millions of controlled substance pills on the city’s black market, the Justice Department announced.

James Robles, 70, of Weslaco, Texas, was charged in an indictment unsealed in the Southern District of Texas with conspiracy to distribute and dispense controlled substances, distributing and dispensing controlled substances, and maintaining a drug-involved premises, according to court documents. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison if Robles is convicted.

Robles, a licensed Texas physician, allegedly conspired with others to illegally prescribe oxycodone, hydrocodone and carisoprodol — controlled substances with substantial street value that were in high demand on Houston’s black market, court documents say. He operated a cash-only clinic where he allegedly sold prescriptions to “crew leaders” who recruited people to pose as patients, filled the prescriptions at complicit pharmacies and resold the drugs on the black market, according to the indictment.

Robles often did not examine or even see the purported patients before prescribing them opioids and other controlled substances, court documents allege.

In just over four years, Robles allegedly prescribed approximately 2.9 million hydrocodone pills, 1.3 million oxycodone pills and 1.1 million carisoprodol pills, the Justice Department said. Over a period of less than three years of the alleged conspiracy, more than $2 million in cash was deposited into bank accounts he controlled, according to prosecutors.

The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Brian C. Leardo. The DEA is investigating the case. Trial Attorneys Angela Benoit and Andrew Pennebaker of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through its Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, the program has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion, the Justice Department said.