A pharmacist in Tampa has been convicted of selling more than 300,000 oxycodone pills to customers who did not have a medical need for the drug, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
A federal jury in the Southern District of Florida convicted Olushola Yusuf, 60 for distributing oxycodone to nearly all of her pharmacy patrons, according to the DOJ’s news release. Yusuf charged customers approximately 10 times more than the drug typically costs and required them to pay her in cash, per the DOJ.
“The defendant abused the public trust by using her pharmacies to unlawfully distribute deadly opioids,” Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald said in a statement. “This conviction sends an unmistakable message: whether you deal drugs on a street corner or from behind a pharmacy counter, the Fraud Division will hold you fully accountable under the law.”
Throughout the conspiracy, Yusuf dispensed at least 335,351 oxycodone pills to her customers, according to the Department.
“By distributing dangerous and highly addictive narcotics, the defendant demonstrated a clear disregard for their community and endangered countless residents who should have been able to trust their pharmacist,” FBI Co-Deputy Director Christopher Raia said in a statement. “The opioid epidemic continues to plague our nation, which is why the FBI, along with our partners, will continue to hold the criminals poisoning our communities with these drugs accountable.”
Yusuf owned and operated two pharmacies in Florida and dispersed oxycodone 30mg pills through both of them, per the press release.
Oxycodone is a semi-synthetic narcotic analgesic which has “historically” been “a popular drug of abuse among the narcotic abusing population,” according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
More than 105,000 individuals in the U.S. died from drug-related overdoses in 2023, including from illicit or prescription drugs, according to estimates from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
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