A pain clinic operator is charged with distributing over 1 million pills in southeastern Kentucky before his offices were shut down.
The Herald-Leader reports that a federal indictment against Joel Shumrak was unsealed Thursday, and details new allegations related to his pain clinics in Georgia and South Florida. A federal grand jury charges Shumrack and Michael Johnston of conspiring to distribute pain pills and Xanax in Clay County, Kentucky, over a nearly six-year-period beginning in 2008.
The two men are accused of taking part in a scheme where Kentuckians came to the clinics in Georgia and Florida and received prescriptions for pain pills without undergoing any legitimate medical examinations.
Court records accuse Shumrack of making $15 million through the effort and hiding the money in an off-shore account.
Eastern Kentucky drug dealers sometimes sponsor trips by addicts to other states where they can load up on pills via fake pain clinics. The dealer and addict then divvy up the pills once the addict returns home.
