HOUSTON – A Texas doctor is accused of illegally selling millions of opioid pills by recruiting others to pose as patients and reselling the drugs on the black market.
In an indictment unsealed Thursday in the Southern District of Texas, James Robles, 70, of Weslaco, Texas, is charged with operating a cash-only clinic in Houston that he used to sell the controlled substances.
Court documents allege Robles, a medical doctor licensed to practice in Texas, conspired with others to illegally prescribe oxycodone, hydrocodone and carisoprodol – all controlled substances with substantial street value that were in high demand on Houston’s black market. Operating from his cash-only Houston clinic, Robles allegedly sold prescriptions to “crew leaders” who recruited others to pose as patients, filled Robles’ prescriptions at complicit pharmacies and resold the drugs on the black market. As alleged, Robles often did not see or examine his purported patients before prescribing them opioids and other controlled substances…