A South Florida physician, Osmin Morales, aged 72 and residing in Weston, has been found guilty of unlawfully prescribing oxycodone, morphine, alprazolam, and other controlled substances.
The conviction, announced by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida (USAO), includes charges of conspiracy to unlawfully dispense and distribute controlled substances, along with six counts of unlawfully dispensing controlled substances.
The verdict, delivered on January 12 after a seven-day trial before U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn, revealed that Morales operated a purported pain management clinic where he issued prescriptions for controlled substances, primarily oxycodone, morphine, and alprazolam (commonly known as Xanax), without a legitimate medical basis.
According to court documents and trial evidence, Morales established the clinic and issued prescriptions, often for cash payments, without proper examinations or medical justifications.
Testimonies from former patients during the trial indicated that prescriptions were sometimes obtained without even seeing Morales. Allegedly, Morales pre-wrote prescriptions and had office managers distribute them to patients for unlawful profits.
The trial also exposed discrepancies in Morales’s medical records, which purportedly detailed patient examinations during periods when he was confirmed to be out of the country by U.S. Customs and Border Protection records.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent testified that Morales prescribed opioids to over 1,000 patients, frequently at maximum doses, and a substantial number of these patients had criminal records related to drug dealing.
A pain medicine expert witness testified that none of the patient records showed a proper medical basis for the prescribed opioids or benzodiazepines. The combination of opioids and benzodiazepines, both central nervous system depressants, was deemed to heighten the risk of overdose and death.
Former office staff members testified to collecting cash payments, averaging $4,000 per day, from patients to whom Morales had provided controlled substance prescriptions, even on days when he was absent from the clinic.
Morales is set to be sentenced on April 17, facing a potential maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the conspiracy count and each additional count of unlawful dispensing.
The conviction was announced by U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida and DEA Miami Field Division Special Agent in Charge Deanne L. Reuter.
The DEA Miami Field Division led the investigation with assistance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Frank Tamen and Theodore Joseph O’Brien are prosecuting the case, while Assistant U.S. Attorneys Emily Stone and Mitchell Hyman are handling asset forfeiture.
