{"id":59799,"date":"2025-09-25T16:43:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T23:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=59799"},"modified":"2025-09-25T16:45:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T23:45:00","slug":"59799","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=59799","title":{"rendered":"Pharmacy Owner, Staff Sentenced in Pill Mill Case, Ordered to Forfeit $2.6 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"133\" data-end=\"313\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><strong>HOUSTON\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"133\" data-end=\"313\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-26743 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/FentanylTabletsDEA04222016-300x169.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/FentanylTabletsDEA04222016-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/FentanylTabletsDEA04222016.png 652w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Arthur Billings, 61, of Missouri City, was sentenced Thursday to 12 years in federal prison and ordered to forfeit $2.6 million for running a cash-only pill mill pharmacy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"315\" data-end=\"824\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">Billings, owner and pharmacist-in-charge of Health Fit Pharmacy, admitted he conspired for four years to illegally dispense hydrocodone and oxycodone and lied on a disability benefits application. Court records show Health Fit filled fraudulent prescriptions\u2014many in the names of stolen physicians\u2019 identities\u2014for drug traffickers who paid hundreds of dollars per script and resold the pills on the black market. Despite repeated warnings from state and federal regulators, the pharmacy continued operating.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"826\" data-end=\"902\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">Three co-conspirators, all Houston pharmacists, were also sentenced today:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"904\" data-end=\"1263\">\n<li data-start=\"904\" data-end=\"1056\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" data-start=\"906\" data-end=\"1056\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><strong data-start=\"906\" data-end=\"935\">Deanna Winfield-Gates, 56<\/strong> \u2013 six years in prison, $60,000 forfeiture. Convicted by a jury of dispensing more than half a million addictive pills.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\" data-start=\"1057\" data-end=\"1165\">\n<p data-start=\"1059\" data-end=\"1165\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><strong data-start=\"1059\" data-end=\"1080\">Jeremy Branch, 38<\/strong> \u2013 22 months in prison, $68,931 forfeiture. Served as pharmacist-in-charge in 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"1166\" data-end=\"1263\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" data-start=\"1168\" data-end=\"1263\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><strong data-start=\"1168\" data-end=\"1188\">Frank Cooper, 55<\/strong> \u2013 20 months in prison, $5,000 forfeiture. Worked as a relief pharmacist.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"1265\" data-end=\"1332\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HOUSTON\u00a0 Arthur Billings, 61, of Missouri City, was sentenced Thursday to 12 years in federal prison and ordered to forfeit $2.6 million for running a cash-only pill mill pharmacy. Billings, owner and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pharmacy Owner, Staff Sentenced in Pill Mill Case, Ordered to Forfeit $2.6 Million<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"HOUSTON\u00a0 Arthur Billings, 61, of Missouri City, was sentenced Thursday to 12 years in federal prison and ordered to forfeit $2.6 million for running a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=59799\" \/>\n<meta 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