Three doctors allegedly ran a prescription drug ring worth $5.7 million in Michigan, federal prosecutors said Wednesday in announcing charges.
"Diversion of prescription pills to the street market promotes the addiction to painkillers that leads to overdose deaths," U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said,
according to the Detroit Free Press.
"We are focusing on charging doctors, pharmacists and the networks that are putting this poison on the streets."
According to a newly unsealed indictment, 10 people including the doctors, pharmacists, and patient recruiters allegedly involved have been charged with crimes.
Prosecutors allege that the drug ring operated from 2013 to 2015, pumping about 1 million painkillers into the black market.
Chiropractor Boris Zigmond, 50, is accused of setting up offices from which the alleged scheme was operated. Authorities said he did not write prescriptions himself, but set up Dr. Jennifer Franklin and Dr. Carlos Godoy to see fake patients and write them prescriptions for painkillers.
WXYZ-TV reported that most of the prescriptions were for Roxicodone and the generic version of Oxycodone.
According to USA Today, state officials announced recently that drug overdose deaths rose 14 percent across Michigan in 2014. Those overdoses were largely the result of heroin and painkiller use, and claimed the lives of 1,745 people.
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