Chestertown Man Pleads Guilty In Pill Mill Conspiracy
BALTIMORE, Md. (WJZ) -- A Kent County man pled guilty Thursday to federal drug charges in connection to a pill mill ring dating back to 2014, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Walter Moffett, 51, of Chestertown, marks the ninth defendant to enter a guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute oxycodone, a prescription pain killer and schedule II controlled substance, related to the ring, federal prosecutors said.
Moffett and others concocted a plan to amass large volumes of pills by sending a stream of individuals without medical needs to obtain prescriptions for oxycodone from doctors at multiple pain clinics, including PG Wellness Center in Oxon Hill and A Plus Pain Center in Washington, D.C., according to the Justice Department.
The individuals would get their prescriptions filled at pharmacies throughout Maryland, Delaware, Washington, D.C., and Virginia, prosecutors said, and then in turn hand off the pills they acquired to Moffett and other co-conspirators. Authorities suspect at least 340,000 mgs of oxycodone were distributed illegally during Moffett's participation in the ring.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, there was a certain degree of sophistication to the scheme because Moffett and other defendants had to make sure the individuals securing the prescriptions did not raise any red flags by getting prescriptions from multiple clinics at the same time. The ring also skirted the Maryland Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (CRISP), which monitors narcotic descriptions issued by doctors.
Co-defendants Danielle Silberstein, 32, of Waldorf; Peter Snyder, 35, of Ocean City; Robert Long, 35, of Mechanicsville; Jamie Davis, 29, of LaPlata; Ronald Tennyson, 33, of Mechanicsville; Terrell Downing, 26, of New Carrollton; John Fields, 67, of Temple Hills; and Ronald Rust, 45, of Alexandria, Va., previously entered guilty pleas in the case.
Sentencing for Moffett is set for Aug. 12.
"Pharmaceutical pills can be just as harmful as illegal drugs when they are used without proper medical supervision and without valid medical need," said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. "Abuse of oxycodone is one of our most significant drug enforcement challenges, and it contributes to the epidemic of heroin overdose deaths."
