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FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - A Fresno antheral was sentenced Monday for conspiring with a pharmacist to get much than 250,000 pills to merchantability for profit, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
Kelo White, 44, of Fresno, was sentenced to 7 years and six months for illegally distributing oxycodone and hydrocodone pills.
The DOJ said that from 2014 to 2018, White and 56-year-old Donald Ray Pierre, of Fresno, obtained much than 450,000 pills of oxycodone and hydrocodone based connected fraudulent prescriptions.
The fraudulent prescriptions were filled by their co-conspirator, 49-year-old Ifeanyi Vincent Ntukogu of Fresno, who was a pharmacist successful Madera, according to the DOJ.
White was liable for much than 250,000 of those pills, the DOJ said. The fraudulent prescriptions were reportedly from much than 10 antithetic doctors whose signatures had been forged.
Federal prosecutors said that White and Pierre had Ntukogu reappraisal each medicine earlier helium filled it to marque definite that authorities regulators would not see it suspicious. For example, prosecutors said that Ntukogu reviewed and rejected prescriptions that were written by definite doctors. He besides reviewed and rejected prescriptions that were written for individuals who were having prescriptions filled astatine different pharmacies due to the fact that helium believed those prescriptions whitethorn rise reddish flags.
White and Pierre paid Ntukogu successful cash, and past they sold the pills for a important profit, national prosecutors say.
The different 2 defendants person already been sentenced: Ntukogu was sentenced connected Nov. 25, 2024, to 7 years and 3 months successful prison; Pierre was sentenced connected July 21, 2020, to 9 years and 4 months successful prison.
