LI-Based Doc Who Sold Opioid Prescriptions Sentenced

A doctor who operated a clinic in Franklin Square and gave out thousands of unnecessary prescriptions for opioids was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday.

Ernesto Lopez, 76, of Flushing, was found guilty in February of conspiring to distribute narcotics and distribution of narcotics. Over a three year period, Lopez wrote thousands of unnecessary prescriptions for oxycodone and fentanyl. In addition to the five-year prison sentence, Lopez was sentenced to three years of supervised release, ordered to pay a $50,000 and forfeit $1.4 million.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “Today’s sentence serves as a message that a doctor who doles out narcotics without regard to his patients’ medical needs and addictions is no more than a drug dealer," U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in a release. "Lopez will serve a substantial sentence for his reprehensible conduct, having betrayed the public’s and his patients’ trust for his own financial gain.”

According to the allegations contained in the Complaint, Indictment, Superseding Indictment, evidence presented during the trial, and statements made in Manhattan federal court:

Oxycodone and fentanyl are highly addictive, narcotic opioids that are used to treat severe pain. Oxycodone prescriptions are in high demand and have significant cash value to drug dealers, authorities said, who sell them on the street for large amounts of money. Individual pills can seel for $20 or $30 each. Fentanyl patches are also commonly abused and sold for cash on the street by drug dealers. Because it is so potent, fentanyl frequently results in overdoses that can lead to death.

From 2015 until his arrest in November 2017, Lopez ran medical clinics in Franklin Square, New York City and Jackson Heights. From there, he gave out thousands of prescriptions for large amounts of oxycodone and fentanyl in exchange for cash. Lopez wrote prescritpions for nearly 1 million oxycodone pills. He would charge $200 to $300 in cash for patient visits, despite the fact that nearly 80 percent of his patients had health insurance.

During the visits, Lopez performed no real examinations and made no diagnoses. He would give prescriptions to patients who demonstrated clear signs of addiction, and those whose test results showed they weren't even taking the pills.

In addition to the oxycodone pills and fentanyl patches, Lopez also prescribed patients a fentanyl-based spray intended to treat terrible cancer pain. In connection with those prescriptions, Lopez submitted an application to INSYS Therapeutics to join a “speaker’s program,” wherein doctors received payments in exchange for prescribing the fentanyl-based spray to patients.

When he was arrested, authorities found hundreds of fentanyl sprays and patches in a closet at Lopez's home, along with about $729,000 in cash.