Feds: Ohio group forged pain-pill prescriptions

CLEVELAND (AP) — Federal authorities say a Cleveland man and six others are charged in a scam that obtained pain medications with forged prescriptions and resold them on the street for $20 to $30 per pill.

The Plain Dealer reports an indictment returned Tuesday also says the suspected ringleader billed Ohio Medicaid for more than $20,000 of the drugs in what U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach calls a ploy to have the state subsidize drug dealing.

The suspects are in federal custody charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute Oxycodone. The alleged ringleader also faces charges of health-care fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Dettelbach calls the criminal dealing of prescription drugs an epidemic. He says, “Instead of dealers shipping in drugs from South America, we now have people forging prescriptions.”