A long-term investigation into a suspected pill trafficking operation has culminated in the arrest of a 78-year-old Metro Detroit doctor. According to WWJ Newsradio, the doctor's clinic in Wayne County as well as his West Bloomfield mansion were raided yesterday by local police and federal agents.
Authorities embarked on the raid after years of surveillance, with the combined effort of the Taylor Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, and the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA). It emerges his clinic on Telegraph Road in Taylor and a 21,000-square-foot home were the focal points of the operation. Multiple agencies claim people from as far as Ohio came to this doctor seeking narcotics. This year, reports have associated over 50 overdoses in the Taylor area alone with this alleged pill mill, per ClickOnDetroit.
"Not only here in the city of Taylor, but spanning the state of Michigan, even surrounding states, as well," Taylor police Detective Jeff Adamisin explained regarding the extensive reach of the operation, as per ClickOnDetroit. A raid on the clinic, while patients waited, resulted in the doctor being escorted out by officers, whereupon he expressed his shock, claiming innocence to Local 4's Shawn Ley.
Further into the depths of this case, while the pill mill is suspected of contributing significantly to the widespread issue of narcotics abuse, it appears that several of the doctor's patients were taken aback by the allegations, but others, like former patient Autum Allen, were not shocked. The doctor had immediately prescribed medication without thorough examination, pushed unwanted medicines, even to non-patients including Allen's 7-year-old daughter, and resorted to dubbing a drug 'tropacandy' to mask its actual identity, Allen detailed to WXYZ. Authorities have since identified 16 bank accounts linked to the doctor, collectively holding millions of dollars.
