A dozen people from seven metro Atlanta counties were indicted Tuesday as part of a pill mill ring that supplied customers from numerous other states, according to local and federal authorities.
The operation illustrated how Georgia has become a hotbed for unscrupulous pain clinics as word spreads among drug-seekers that the state is "the place to come for pills," said John Comer, acting special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration Atlanta field division.
"Georgia is the epicenter of the pill mill pain clinic issue in the Southeast and, to a greater extent, the nation," Comer said.
Raids at 19 businesses and homes across the metro area Tuesday were the result of a yearlong investigation spearheaded by the DEA and the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office.
Pain clinic owners William Dean Benton, Malcolm Dwayne Garrett and Richard Joseph Romero made millions of dollars selling the powerful prescription pain drug oxycodone to clients who would ferry the pills as far away as Texas and Ohio, according to authorities.
DeKalb authorities first became aware of the pill mill racket at Better Living and Wellness Center in Chamblee when DEA agents approached them about an ongoing investigation this spring, officials said. About four months ago, the business relocated to Sandy Springs and reopened under a new name, the Atlanta Counseling and Recovery Center.
The two clinics' doctors, William Floyd Garrett and Curtis Edwin Wills, are accused of writing prescriptions for up to 250 30 milligram tablets of oxycodone after evaluating patients for less than three minutes. The clinics allegedly referred patients to six pharmacies in Douglasville, Canton, Marietta and Calhoun that were willing to fill the prescriptions with no questions asked.
"The only person who normally gets close to this amount is a cancer patient in his or her last days of life," said DeKalb District Attorney Robert James.
At the clinic-recommended pharmacies, patients paid a substantial markup of up to five times the usual cost for the drugs because legitimate pharmacies turned them away, James said.
The operation sold more than 225,900 pills last year, nearly five times Georgia’s average pill output for the year and more than three times the national average.
Others indicted include pharmacists David Ajueyitsi, Oko Owu Ukoh, Richard Paul Noell, Shad Justin Sutherland, Christopher Austin Parker, Christian Fumnanya Monyei and Christy Amos Parker.
All the defendants are charged with two counts of racketeering. If convicted, they face a sentence of between five and 20 years on each count.
Prosecutors said the pill mill conspiracy moved to Georgia two years ago when the operation was shut down in Florida.
Garrett, Wills and Benton were arrested Tuesday at the Sandy Springs clinic. About 20 patients inside the clinic will be held until authorities determine whether they are illegal drug users.
After the raid, police and agents also arrested three men inside their vehicles, presumably waiting to be called in to the clinic, authorities said.
James said clinic operators prohibited lines from forming outside to avoid drawing attention from police, and patrolled the parking lot to see if they were being watched.
GBI narcotics inspector Fred E. Stephens said pills mills are increasing prescription drug addiction in Georgia. Prescription drug-related overdose deaths increased by 10 percent from 2009 to 2010.
Both Stephens and James said they believe Georgia needs better laws to combat the abuse.
Would-be pill sellers are flocking from surrounding states where stiffer laws make access to addictive pain medicine more difficult, prosecutors say. Comer estimated there are about 90 pill mills currently operating in Georgia, where only a few years ago there were fewer than a dozen.
Georgia this spring became one of the last states to approve the creation of an electronic database to monitor prescription drug dispensing. The database will identify patients who are doctor-shopping and physicians who are over-prescribing. However, it won't be operational until January 2013.
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