ATLANTA — Thirteen people, including a gynecologist and two pharmacists, have been sentenced for their participation in a “pill mill” operation in metro Atlanta.
According to U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan, Anthony Mills, M.D., 57, was a medical doctor, licensed to practice in Georgia since 1997 as a gynecologist.
Buchanan said Mills operated a pill mill out of his home since at least October of 2018, giving hundreds of prescriptions for controlled substances (such as large amounts of oxycodone) to addicts and drug dealers for cash.
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Mills did not have a traditional patient-doctor relationship with these people.
Instead, he often issued prescriptions without ever meeting or evaluating the recipients.
Some of the prescriptions issued were in the names of people who were dead or in jail or whose identities had been stolen at the time he wrote the prescriptions.
Channel 2 Action News first reported on Mills in 2021 when Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes knocked on the door of the southwest Atlanta home where federal agents said he lived.
He did not answer. Neighbors said he moved out after his house was raided.
Many of the illegitimate prescriptions were filled by licensed pharmacist Raphael Ogunsusi, RPh, 71, through his pharmacies, Evansmill Pharmacy and Retox Pharmacy located in Stonecrest and Conyers.
Buchanan said Ogunsusi accepted large cash payments to fill the prescriptions, which he knew were illegal.
He would charge way over market value for the illegal prescriptions - as much as $900 to fill just one prescription for oxycodone and $500 to fill one prescription for Percocet.
Ogunsusi would require the people filling the illegal prescriptions to buy many other non-controlled substances, which he called the “Shebang.”
That way he could maximize his profits and conceal that most of his customers only wanted to fill prescriptions for controlled substances at his pharmacies.
Ogunsusi also instructed his pharmacy employees, including another licensed pharmacist, to fill the illegal prescriptions.
In addition to Mills, Ogunsusi, and the other pharmacist, 10 people who filled prescriptions and sold them to drug users were sentenced.
Mills, of Atlanta, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to dispense and distribute prescription controlled substances and was sentenced to 11 years in prison and three years of supervised release.
Ogunsusi, of Conyers, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to dispense and distribute prescription controlled substances and money laundering and was sentenced to nine years and seven months in prison and one year of supervised release.
Moses Kirigwi, RPh, 32, of Atlanta, pleaded guilty to using a telephone in connection with the unlawful dispensing and distribution of prescription controlled substances and was sentenced to 90 days in prison and one year of supervised release with the first three months served in home detention.
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Thomika Riley, 50, of McDonough, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to dispense and distribute prescription controlled substances and was sentenced to six years and six months in prison and three years of supervised release.
Brittany Tinker, 30, of Stonecrest, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to dispense and distribute prescription controlled substances and was sentenced to six years and six months in prison and three years of supervised release.
Natalie Jackson, 40, of East Point, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to dispense and distribute prescription controlled substances and was sentenced to four years and three months in prison and two years of supervised release.
Rogerick Smith, 46, of Atlanta, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to dispense and distribute prescription controlled substances and was sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison and three years of supervised release.
Keandre Bates, 31, of Decatur, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to dispense and distribute prescription controlled substances and was sentenced to nine years and two months in prison and three years of supervised release.
Jeana Alston, 43, of Atlanta, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to dispense and distribute prescription controlled substances and was sentenced to three years and one month in prison and two years of supervised release.
Chafulumisa Lisbon, 33, of Atlanta, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to dispense and distribute prescription controlled substances and was sentenced to nine years and two months in prison and three years of supervised release.
Javon Hamilton, 34, of Bluffton, South Carolina, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to dispense and distribute prescription controlled substances and was sentenced to nine years and two months in prison and three years of supervised release.
Marcena Jordan, 30, of Albany, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to dispense and distribute prescription controlled substances and was sentenced to 10 years in prison and three years of supervised release.
Travious Polain, 33, of Decatur, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to dispense and distribute prescription controlled substances and was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
“Pharmaceutical products that are distributed for non-medical reasons can be just as deadly as illicit drugs,” Robert J. Murphy, the Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Atlanta Division said. “Dr. Mills distributed vast quantities of pharmaceutical products and had total disregard for human life. The moment he decided to illegally distribute drugs, he became nothing more than a drug trafficker.”
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