TEXAS
A Houston physician and the owner of a pain management clinic were each sentenced to 35 years in prison Thursday for running a pill mill that provided tens of thousands of unlawful prescriptions for millions of doses of opioids and other controlled substances.
Gazelle Craig D.O., 42, and Shane Faithful, 49, both of Houston, Texas, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge David Hittner.
Craig and Faithful were convicted at trial in March 2018 of one count of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute controlled substances and three counts of unlawfully distributing and dispensing controlled substances.
The defendants were charged in an indictment returned on July 6, 2017.
“Today’s sentences should serve as a stark warning to any medical professional considering exploiting the opioid crisis for profit: you will be caught, you will be prosecuted, and you will pay a steep price for abusing your prescription power for personal gain,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski. “In the midst of the deadliest drug crisis in our country’s history, Gazelle Craig and Shane Faithful sold millions of opioids and endangered the safety of an untold number of Americans. We should all be proud of the hard work being done by DEA’s Tactical Diversion Squad and the prosecutors in the Department of Justice’s Fraud Section.”
“Dr. Craig, along with clinic owner Shane Faithful, used their position of trust to illegally distribute over 2 million dosage units of hydrocodone into local communities across Houston,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Will R. Glaspy. “It is this kind of illegal distribution of prescription drugs that feed the opioid epidemic and destroys families. The sentencing of Dr. Craig and Mr. Faithful is a victory for our communities while at the same time making a nationwide statement that the DEA and DOJ will not tolerate this type of illegal activity.”
According to evidence, from March 2015 through July 2017, Craig and Faithful ran Gulfton Community Health Center (Gulfton), which operated as an illegal pill mill.
The evidence showed that Craig unlawfully wrote approximately 18,252 prescriptions for over 2.1 million dosage units of hydrocodone, a Schedule II controlled substance, and approximately 15,649 prescriptions for over 1.3 million dosage units of carisporodal, a Schedule IV controlled substance.
The combination of hydrocodone and carisoprodol is a dangerous drug cocktail with no known medical benefit, the evidence showed.
Craig regularly issued unlawful prescriptions for controlled substances to more than 60 patients a day, the evidence showed. “Crew leaders” ferried numerous patients to Gulfton so that Craig could provide them with unlawful prescriptions for controlled substances.
Faithful and Craig charged approximately $300 for each prescription and required payment in cash. The defendants divided each day’s cash proceeds, often in excess of $15,000, from the sale of the unlawful prescriptions.