Chestertown man charged in pill mill operation
Eight people from around Maryland and Virginia have pleaded guilty to participating in a pill mill.
What that essentially means is that these people would fake maladies or injuries to get pain killers, and then sell them for profit. The man at the center of this organization was 51-year-old Walter Moffett of Chestertown. The mill apparently started in 2014 primarily distributing oxycodone.
According to court documents, Moffett would employ runners to get prescriptions from pain centers in the western part of Maryland, and then they would fill them at various pharmacies in Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia. Officials say some 340,000 milligrams of oxycodone were distributed. Moffett will be sentenced in August. As for the other seven people, five, including an Ocean City man, are also awaiting sentencing. Another one died before there was a formal judgement in her case.
Co-defendants include Danielle Silberstein, age 32, of Waldorf; Peter Snyder, age 35, of Ocean City, Maryland; Robert Long, age 35, of Mechanicsville, Maryland; Jamie Davis, age 29, of LaPlata, Maryland; Ronald Tennyson, age 33, of Mechanicsville; Terrell Downing, age 26, of New Carrollton, Maryland; and John Fields, age 67, of Temple Hills, Maryland, previously pleaded guilty to the conspiracy and are awaiting sentencing. Ronald Rust, age 45, of Alexandria, Virginia, also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years in prison. Co-defendant Melissa Catlett, age 39, of King George, Virginia passed away before her case was adjudicated.
“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.”
“Last year, DEA and its partners combined their resources to identify these drug dealers who cunningly attempted to bypass the Maryland Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (CRISP). The result of these efforts was the dismantling of a drug trafficking organization that was making a toxic profit off of addiction. These “runners” and “distributors” were allowing a countless number of highly addictive prescription opioids to hit the streets of Maryland, Delaware, Washington, DC, and Virginia,” said Special Agent in Charge Karl C. Colder of the Drug Enforcement Administration – Washington Field Division. “The DEA wants to thank our law enforcement partners for their unwavering commitment to eradicating these drug dealers, who are destroying lives and making enormous profits from the diversion of pain medication.”
