The owner of two Broward pharmacies was convicted in federal court Tuesday for her role in selling over 300,000 pills to patients who didn’t need them, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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Olushola Yusuf, 60, of Tampa, is a licensed pharmacist who owned and operated Boots LLC (Striderite) in Margate and Chans Pharmacy Plus in Pembroke Pines, the attorney’s office said.
During a two-week trial at the Federal Courthouse in Miami, jurors were told Yusuf sold oxycodone to “nearly all” her customers, often charging then 10 times the market cost and requiring them all to pay in cash. Her customers, according to prosecutors, had no medical need for the prescription painkiller.
“The defendant abused the public trust by using her pharmacies to unlawfully distribute deadly opioids,” Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, said in a news release. “This conviction sends an unmistakable message: Whether you deal drugs on a street corner or from behind a pharmacy counter, the Fraud Division will hold you fully accountable under the law.”
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Some customers paid as much as $1,000 a month for drugs. Prosecutors said some customers were drug dealers who picked up the drugs for patients who were not present.
Witnesses told the jury that Yusuf kept the doors to her pharmacies locked during business hours, directing employees only to open the door for certain identified customers.
Yusuf was convicted of one count of conspiracy to illegally distribute drugs and five counts of illegal drug distribution. She is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Melissa Damien on Oct. 14. She faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on each count.
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A message left for her attorney on Wednesday was not returned.
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at [email protected] or 954-356-4457.