Overview
- Federal prosecutors, who unsealed the indictment Thursday in the Southern District of Texas, charged James Robles, 70, with three counts tied to illegal distribution of controlled substances.
- Authorities allege he ran a cash-only Houston clinic that sold prescriptions to crew leaders who recruited people to pose as patients and used cooperating pharmacies to get pills onto the street.
- Court documents say he prescribed about 2.9 million hydrocodone pills, 1.3 million oxycodone pills, and 1.1 million carisoprodol pills over a little more than four years.
- The indictment states he often did not see or examine the people before writing the prescriptions.
- Investigators report more than $2 million in cash flowed into accounts he controlled in under three years, and if convicted he faces up to 20 years per count as the DEA investigates and DOJ Fraud Section prosecutors handle the case.