In a sweep across Florida on Wednesday, federal and state police arrested seven doctors and raided seven medical clinics that investigators say are part of a crime ring that trafficked in millions of doses of powerful painkillers, including oxycodone.
At Miami-Dade Medical Solutions, a clinic tucked into a leafy office campus a few blocks from the interstate here, physicians Michael Bengala and Roger Gordon allegedly prescribed hundreds of thousands of oxycodone pills after conducting only cursory medical exams on patients who traveled from across the country, investigators said.
Inside the office, Drug Enforcement Administration agents found fluorescent yellow-and-red sidewalk signs directing patients to "turn here" for pain management, as well as fliers advertising $99 office visits and urging patients to call 305-653-PAIN. But they didn't find much medical equipment.
In three examination rooms, agents found little more than examining tables, a blood-pressure cuff, a few cotton balls and some latex gloves, DEA special agent Jeannette Moran said. "It's very bare-bones," she said. "It's not what my doctor's office looks like."
Gordon, 65, a board-certified plastic surgeon from Plantation, prescribed more than 270,000 30-mg pills of oxycodone in one year, the Florida Department of Health said in an emergency order suspending his medical license Wednesday.
Police on Wednesday charged Gordon with manslaughter. At least two people treated by Gordon died within days of visiting the clinic, the suspension order said.
In one cellphone call intercepted by federal agents, the manager of one of the pain-management clinics discussed the overdose death of one of Gordon's patients and whether to alter the dead patient's medical records, the suspension order said.
Department of Health officials said the clinic's owner operates 10 pain-management clinics in Florida and Georgia that employ licensed doctors and nurses.
The investigation began in May 2010 when police in Vero Beach began fielding complaints about traffic and crowds at Stuart Pain Management, which had opened a clinic in a defunct car dealership on the city's main street.
"Suddenly, we had a lot of interesting visitors from Kentucky and Tennessee," Indian River County Sheriff Deryl Loar said. DEA agents working with local police traced Stuart Pain Management and eight other clinics around Florida to Lewis Stouffer, 32, of Coconut Creek, a firefighter and paramedic in Pompano Beach, DEA Special Agent in Charge Mark Trouville said.
Stouffer allegedly set up the clinics, invested in them and advised clinic managers and doctors how to avoid drawing police attention, Trouville said. He allegedly scoured DEA affidavits in other cases to determine what would trigger an investigation and instructed the doctors to occasionally turn in drug seekers to police to appear legitimate, Trouville said.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi called the ring "a modern-day cartel."
DEA records show that one doctor arrested in the raid, Bruce Kammerman, prescribed on average 1,700 oxycodone tablets a day.
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