Source: Office of United States Attorneys
MINNEAPOLIS – Three individuals have been charged in a conspiracy to acquire scheduled controlled substances by fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger.
According to court documents, Oscar Becerra-Ruiz, 21, Jasper William Johnson, 19, and Rayjaun Keon Varner, 23, knowingly conspired with each other to obtain promethazine with codeine, a controlled substance. From approximately December 2022 and continuing through on or about August 3, 2023, the defendants used paid internet-based record searches to secure identifying information of registered physicians practicing in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Johnson then used this information to illegally access the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Registrant Information Consolidated System (RICS), a government-run database designed to track physician registration, compliance, and reporting, and to prevent the diversion of controlled substances from legitimate medical sources to the illicit black market.
The indictment alleges that after gaining access to multiple physicians’ RICS accounts, Johnson changed the physicians’ valid contact information in the system to phone numbers, email addresses, and physical addresses he and his co-conspirators maintained and controlled. The defendants then used the stolen and compromised information to set up physician customer accounts with several online pharmaceutical wholesalers. Using pre-paid debit cards and peer-to-peer payment accounts also registered in the physicians’ names, the defendants unlawfully placed dozens of orders with the pharmaceutical vendors for controlled substances, including promethazine with codeine, a prescription-strength cough syrup containing the opioid codeine.
To date, the investigation, which remains ongoing, has not uncovered any evidence of patients or patient information having been compromised by the defendants.
Becerra-Ruiz, Johnson, and Varner were each charged with conspiracy to obtain controlled substances by fraud and attempt to obtain controlled substances by fraud. Johnson was charged with an additional 11 counts of wire fraud, 3 counts of accessing a protected computer in furtherance of fraud, and 4 counts of aggravated identity theft. The defendants will be arraigned at a later date.
This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, with assistance from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the U.S. Secret Service.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lauren O. Roso and Allen A. Slaughter are prosecuting the case.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.