The California Department of Health Care Services assisted with this investigation
“Health care professionals take an oath professing their commitment to the health and wellbeing of those they serve. Contributing to the illegal trafficking of highly addictive narcotics does nothing to enhance the wellbeing of individuals, neighborhoods and communities. We appreciate those who investigate these crimes, as they work to protect us from harm.”
CSLEA President Alan Barcelona
FRESNO— On November 25, 2024, Ifeanyi Vincent Ntukogu, 49, of Fresno, was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison for illegally distributing oxycodone and hydrocodone. Ntukogu was a pharmacist in Madera who dispensed more than 450,000 oxycodone and hydrocodone pills based on fraudulent prescriptions, all in exchange for cash.
“This defendant displayed a blatant disregard for public safety and the law,” U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert said. “It took the effort of agents, investigators, undercover officers, and medical professionals to bring an end to this illicit prescription-writing racket. The U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue our pursuit of those who fuel the opioid epidemic for their own personal benefit.”
According to court records, from December 2014 through November 2018, Ntukogu dispensed more than 450,000 oxycodone and hydrocodone pills based on fraudulent prescriptions delivered to him by his co-conspirators and co-defendants in the case, Kelo White and Donald Pierre. The prescriptions were from more than 10 different physicians whose signatures were forged.
Ntukogu reviewed each prescription and rejected the ones that he believed regulators may deem suspicious. For example, he rejected prescriptions that were supposedly written by certain doctors or that were written for individuals who were having prescriptions filled at other pharmacies because he believed those prescriptions may raise red flags.
Ntukogu dispensed the pills through his New Life Pharmacy in Madera. Upon doing so, he required cash payments from White and Pierre and increased the price that he charged over time. White and Pierre then illegally sold the pills in Tennessee, Texas, and elsewhere.
Ntukogu received hundreds of thousands of dollars for his participation in the scheme. His sentence was also enhanced because he used his special skills as a pharmacist to help commit the crime.
This case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the California Department of Health Care Services. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Antonio Pataca and Joseph Barton prosecuted the case.
White is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 24, 2025. He faces a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.
Pierre, the remaining defendant in the case, was previously convicted and sentenced to nine years and four months in prison.
