Exclusive: DEA Busts Doc & Staffers For Overprescribing Pain Pills
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A South Florida doctor and three medical employees are facing federal charges of overprescribing hundreds of thousands of pain pills.
Drug Enforcement agents moved in on the Pompano Beach medical office of Dr. Willem Ouw on Thursday, June 15th.
Dr. Ouw was arrested, along with three others, for over prescribing large amounts of oxycodone.
According to the DEA, Ouw prescribed more than 400-thousand oxycodone pills worth about $10 million dollars.
"When they're taking advantage and overprescribing, writing prescriptions with no medical necessity, it's all for profit and that's just not right," said DEA Public Information Officer Anne-Judith Lambert.
CBS4 News cameras exclusively captured two others being arrested, Belafonte Byard and Donna Licata.
The DEA says they are medical staffers at the office.
A fourth medical staffer, Sarah Shoopman, was arrested near Orlando.
Investigators loaded up box after box of evidence from the office as they try and figure out the scope of the operation.
"They're supposed to be part of the solution and they're not. They're part of the problem," said Lambert.
With an average of 4 or 5 people dying from drug overdose in South Florida every day, investigators say the key to stemming that tide is arresting the people responsible flooding the community with pills.
"Our goal is to get them convicted and put away so they can't do this anymore," according to Lambert.
The DEA says Dr. Ouw agreed to surrender his medical license and his DEA registration after his arrest.
