ASHLAND —
A South Florida physician is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in federal court in Ashland for allegedly engaging in a conspiracy with two men to illegally distribute prescription narcotics in northeastern Kentucky.
Dr. Clara S. Rodriguez-Iznaga’s arraignment is set for 8:30 a.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward B. Atkins.
Rodriguez-Iznaga and her co-defendants, William James Muldoon Jr. and Jody L. Robinson, all are charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substance and conspiracy to commit money-laundering. Each could be sentenced to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The indictment in which the three are charged also contains a $2 million forfeiture allegation. According to the government, that represents the approximate value of the property involved in the money-laundering offense, as well as the property that facilitated and/or was the proceeds of the drug trafficking.
The alleged offenses occurred in 2008 and 2009. According to the indictment, Robinson was at the time the owner of two pain clinics, Florida Global Medical in Plantation and Ohio Pain Relief Center in Portsmouth. Rodriguez-Iznaga worked for Robinson at Florida Global Medical.
Beginning in June 2008 and continuing through September 2009, the defendants allegedly conspired to provide pills to Kentucky residents for distribution in Boyd, Lawrence and Greenup counties, the indictment states.
Robinson and Muldoon have both been arraigned and entered not-guilty pleas. The case is scheduled for trial Nov. 13.
According to the court records, the case against Rodriguez-Iznaga, Robinson and Muldoon is related to the government’s prosecution of William Ossie Lucas, 37, of Kermit, W.Va., who in May was sentenced to 135 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and conspiracy to launder the money he made from doing so.
Between early 2008 and August 2009, Lucas and his co-defendant, Billy J. Evans, 42, of Kermit, conspired “together and with others” to distribute oxycodone in Boyd, Lawrence, Greenup and Martin counties. During that period, the two made numerous trips to the Plantation, Fla., area to visit pain clinics there.
“The purpose of the visits was to obtain oxycodone from Florida doctors and Florida pharmacies for distribution” in northeastern Kentucky, records state. “Most, if not all, of the visits with the prescribing physicians involved little, if any, examination and were fraudulent.”
Evans also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 37 months.
KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.
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