By chatnewstv.com
MIAMI (chatnewstv.com) — A Miami-based pharmaceutical wholesaler has entered into a two-year deferred prosecution agreement after admitting to its role in a massive distribution scheme that funneled millions of opioid pills into Houston-area “pill mills,” federal authorities announced Tuesday.
Atlantic Biologicals Corporation, through its subsidiary National Apothecary Solutions (NAS), sold more than 14 million doses of addictive painkillers and “potentiators”—drugs used to enhance an opioid high—to pharmacies it knew were operating outside legitimate medical standards.
According to court admissions, NAS generated at least $2.5 million in proceeds from these sales between 2017 and 2023. The company has agreed to pay a $450,000 criminal penalty and will shut down the NAS business unit entirely by the end of January.
“Atlantic Biologicals abused its trusted position in the pharmaceutical supply chain when it supplied Houston-area pill mill pharmacies with powerful, addictive opioids solely for its own financial gain,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva. “Yesterday’s resolution sends a clear message that we will hold to account corporate criminal actors.”
Federal investigators say NAS ignored blatant “red flags” for drug diversion. These included pharmacy customers who operated out of strip malls with bars on the windows, maintained irregular business hours, and expressed specific preferences for the color and shape of pills—traits common in the black market.
The scheme also involved an elaborate “ratio” requirement where pharmacies were forced to buy large quantities of non-controlled drugs to justify their massive orders of oxycodone, hydrocodone, and alprazolam. NAS sold these controlled substances at a significant markup, profiting from the pharmacies’ willingness to pay well-above-market prices to secure the drugs.
“Atlantic Biologicals did not make a mistake, it made a choice,” said Cheri Oz, Assistant Administrator of the DEA’s Diversion Control Division. “A choice to put millions of opioid pills into the hands of pill mills, knowing full well those drugs would be exploited.”
Several former executives and contractors have already pleaded guilty in connection with the investigation, including former NAS president Joshua Weinstein and former sales representative Derrick Chad Atkinson.
The deferred prosecution agreement requires the company to implement a strict compliance and ethics program and cooperate with ongoing Justice Department investigations. Separately, the company’s co-owner, Karen Moody, has agreed to personally pay $500,000 to resolve civil allegations related to the same conduct.
The resolution marks a significant victory for the Health Care Fraud Strike Force, which has charged more than 5,800 defendants since its inception in 2007.
