A pharmacy owner who repeatedly ignored her staff’s warning and who continued to illegally dispense highly addictive oxycodone pills to customers – many of them drug dealers themselves supplying their own buyers – has been sentenced to 90 months in prison.
The US Department of Justice said Olushola Yusuf (60) had sold more than 300 000 oxycodone 30mg pills to nearly all of her customers, most of whom had no medical need for the drug.
In total, she dispensed at least 335 351 of the pills, charging customers almost 10 times the typical cost of the drug and asking for payment in cash.
She owned and operated two pharmacies, and customers drove long distances for her to fill prescriptions they could not get filled at any other pharmacy. A number of the customers were drug dealers who picked up the pills on behalf of dozens of patients.
According to witnesses at trial, Yusuf kept the doors to her pharmacies locked during business hours, directing employees only to open the door for certain identified customers.
Yusuf continued to dispense oxycodone in this way even after repeated warnings from her employees and the DEA.
At the end of the two-week trial, the jury convicted her of conspiracy to illegally distribute drugs and five counts of illegal drug distribution. Yusuf’s co-defendant, Saman Gimenez, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to illegally distribute drugs and is scheduled be sentenced later this year.
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