Hassan Barnes, 56, a former Missouri City pharmacist, was sentenced to 24 months in prison today for illegally prescribing opioids and other controlled substances.
Clint Carr, 33, a former Cypress pharmacy owner, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on June 24 and forced to forfeit more than $700,000 for running an unlawfully dispensed controlled drug pharmacy and laundering criminal proceeds.
Frasiel Hughey, 60, a former Houston supplier-level drug dealer, was sentenced to 20 years in jail on June 23 for using forged prescriptions to get opiates and other banned drugs.
Carr was convicted by a jury in March of narcotics and money laundering schemes, as well as other connected offences. Carr co-owned and ran CC Pharmacy in Houston, as well as CC Pharmacy 2 and CC Pharmacy 3 in the Austin region, according to evidence produced at trial. Barnes was the pharmacist in charge of CC Pharmacy. Carr, Barnes, and their co-conspirators illegally delivered approximately 1.5 million dosage units of controlled substances in just 18 months, including over 1.1 million oxycodone and hydrocodone tablets.
The evidence at trial demonstrated that CC Pharmacy illegally distributed controlled substances — largely oxycodone and hydrocodone — in bulk for cash, based mostly on falsified or stolen prescriptions carried in by drug couriers acting as long-term care facility workers.
CC Pharmacy earned more than $5.5 million from the illegal sale of these controlled substances, cash proceeds that Carr and his co-conspirators organised in order to avoid reporting obligations. Carr used the drug revenues to fuel a luxurious lifestyle, including the purchase of luxury watches and the down payment on a $100,000 Ford pickup vehicle, according to evidence presented at trial.
Carr was found guilty of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense controlled substances, unlawfully distributing and dispensing controlled substances, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, and engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity after a five-day trial. Barnes pled guilty to conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and administer controlled drugs in January.
Hughey pled guilty in March to conspiracy to distribute and dispense controlled substances as well as unlawfully distributing and dispensing controlled substances. In conjunction with the operation of CC Pharmacy, four additional co-conspirators pled guilty, two of whom are now awaiting punishment.
The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Jennifer Lowery for the Southern District of Texas, and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram.
DEA Houston, including the DEA Austin Resident Office, investigated the case.
Trial Attorneys Devon Helfmeyer and Courtney Chester of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristine Rollinson of the Southern District of Texas is handling forfeiture.