A Woodland Hills man who turned prescription painkillers into a cross-country cash machine has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison for his role in a sprawling oxycodone scheme that ran through Southern California clinics and pharmacies.
Justin Douglas Cozart, 48, received the sentence Wednesday from U.S. District Judge David O. Carter after a multi-day trial that ended in a guilty verdict. Prosecutors said the operation relied on sham clinic visits, bogus prescriptions and interstate pill shipments that effectively turned medical offices into a supply line for the black market.
A federal jury found Cozart guilty in February 2025 of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments and concealment money laundering, according to court records and reporting by MyNewsLA. The case was brought in the Central District of California and appears on the court's calendar; court scheduling documents list Cozart alongside co-defendants in the long-running ChiroMed investigation.
How Prosecutors Say The Oxy Ring Worked
According to federal prosecutors, Cozart controlled several Southern California clinics that became pill mills in all but name. Sham patients were funneled in, high-dose oxycodone prescriptions were written, and paid recruiters then scooped up the pills at pharmacies before consolidating them for resale.
Earlier indictments from the U.S. Attorney’s Office alleged that the clinics churned out large quantities of 30 milligram oxycodone tablets. A related appeal in the case describes intercepted parcels, wiretap recordings and seized shipments that investigators used to stitch the case together; the Ninth Circuit's opinion, available via Justia, lays out those investigative steps in detail.
Legal Fallout And Co-Defendants
In a sentencing memo, prosecutors labeled Cozart "a primary, illegal source of supply of oxycodone," a characterization the government leaned on in arguing for a stiff prison term, according to MyNewsLA. One physician tied to the scheme, John Korzelius, pleaded guilty in February 2025 and is set for sentencing on June 8, local reporting notes.
The prosecutions grew out of a multi-agency investigation that used wiretaps, undercover buys and intercepted mail to follow the trail of oxycodone from Southern California storefront clinics to buyers in other states. For Cozart, federal authorities say, that trail now ends with nearly two decades in prison.
