Operation Wasted Daze: 46 Convicted in $18 Million Pill Mill Scheme

U.S. Attorney’s Office – Northern District of Texas, March 25, 2021

Forty-six defendants, including two doctors, a nurse practitioner, and five pharmacists, have been convicted of operating an $18 million pill mill scheme, announced Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Prerak Shah.

They were arrested in 2020 by the DEA’s Fort Worth Tactical Diversion Squad in “Operation Wasted Daze.”

The lead defendant, 61-year-old oncologist Caesar Mark Capistrano, was charged with multiple counts of conspiracy to dispense hydrocodone and possession with intent to distribute hydrocodone or carisoprodol.  He and five coconspirators – pharmacists Ethel Oyekunle-Bubu, Wilkinson Oloyede Thomas, and Christopher Kalejaiye Ajayi as well as recruiter Brian Kincade and recruit  Alphonse Fisher – were convicted at trial. The remaining 41 defendants pleaded guilty prior to trial.

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