Opioid Doc Tied To 5 Overdoses, Mass Shooting, Fatal DUI: FBI

IRVINE, CA —An Orange County urgent care doctor was arrested Tuesday on federal charges that he illegally prescribed powerful narcotics resulting in multiple deaths across southern California. Dzung Ahn Pham, 57, of Tustin, was charged in at least five overdose deaths, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Justice said.

Pham was also accused of prescribing opioids to an accused drugged driver charged with the death of Costa Mesa Capt. Mike Kreza, and authorities also linked the doctor through a text message to a prescription bottle in possession of the gunman who opened fire on a Thousand Oaks nightclub last month, killing 12.

Pham, owner of Irvine Village Urgent Care, is accused of "flooding the market" with "huge quantities of opioids" resulting in at least five deaths, United States Attorney's Office spokesman Thom Mrozek said.

The DEA has accused Pham of writing prescriptions to people without examining them and of selling opioids to drug addicts or drug dealers, who then sold the narcotics on the black market, Mrozek said.

Pham wrote an increasingly high number of prescriptions over three years, so much so that a CVS pharmacy in Irvine stopped filling prescriptions from Pham five years ago when the doctor could not justify the number of opioid pills he prescribed to individual patients, prosecutors said.

The complaint states that in the summer of 2017, undercover DEA agents quickly and easily obtained prescriptions for narcotics, including “a triple threat,” also referred to as a “holy trinity" — a powerful concoction of opioids (such as hydrocodone), a benzodiazepine (such as Valium) and carisoprodol (a muscle relaxer like Soma).

Pham steered the undercover agent to an Irvine pharmacy that filled many of his prescriptions, according to the criminal complaint.

Text messages, outlined in an affidavit filed with the complaint, show that at least 84 patients had prescriptions filled on the same day or within the next two days of receiving their messages. The drugs included Adderall, oxycodone, Tramadol, Suboxone, Norco, Soma, alprazolam, and hydrocodone bitartrate-acetaminophen, according to the affidavit.

From 2014 through 2017, at least five people who received and filled prescriptions from Pham died of drug overdoses, as well as at least one other fatal side effect, the complaint states.

Stephen Taylor Scarpa, 25, of Mission Viejo, who is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Kreza, the 44-year-old Costa Mesa fire captain, was allegedly high on drugs he got from Pham at the time of the deadly collision on Nov. 3, Mrozek said. Prescription bottles with Pham's name on them were found in Scarpa's van after the crash, according to a DEA affidavit.

Federal authorities also contend that Pham sent a text message expressing concern that Borderline Bar and Grill mass killer David Ian Long had prescription drugs in his possession that Pham had prescribed for someone else.

“This case clearly and tragically illustrates the dangers of drug dealers armed with prescription pads,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna.

“(Tuesday’s) arrest of Dr. Pham was accomplished through the tireless work of DEA agents and federal prosecutors,” said DEA Los Angeles Associate Special Agent in Charge William D. Bodner. “This arrest should serve as a warning to any physician who utilizes their position to traffic opioids. Dr. Pham’s arrest coincides with today’s press conference announcing DEA’s commitment to opioid and overdose prevention with its community and law enforcement partners.”

The specific narcotics charge in the complaint relates to oxycodone prescriptions Pham allegedly issued to a woman who Pham never saw as a patient.

The affidavit, however, asserts that Pham had regularly prescribed oxycodone to the woman’s husband and had prescribed the drugs within days of writing prescriptions for the same drug to her.

Pham charged between $100 and $150 per office visit, Mrozek said. The doctor deposited more than $5 million, mostly in cash, into his and his wife's bank accounts between 2013 and September of this year, according to the DEA affidavit. He also deposited about $1.7 million into a business bank account that investigators suspect came from insurance payments, Mrozek said.

Pham is expected to make his first court appearance Tuesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana.

Patch attempted to contact both Irvine Village Urgent Care and Pham's attorney for comment and will update this report if a statement is released.

If Pham is convicted of the drug-trafficking charges, he will face a statutory maximum sentence of 40 years in federal prison, Mrozek said.

Here's the complaint:

City News Service, Patch Editor Ashley Ludwig, contributed to this report.

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