Doctors from West Bloomfield, Farmington Hills and Harrison Township charged with peddling prescription pain pills on the black market.(Photo: Liz O. Baylen/Los Angeles Times)
DETROIT, Mich. -- Three<span style="color: Red;">*</span>metro Detroit<span style="color: Red;">*</span>doctors allegedly ran a $5.7 million drug
ring<span style="color: Red;">*</span>that peddled prescription pain pills on the street, federal
prosecutors said Wednesday.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
In yet another drug case targeting health care professionals, federal prosecutors announced criminal charges against doctors from Farmington Hills, West Bloomfield and<span style="color: Red;">*</span><span style="color: Red;">*</span>Harrison Township.
The doctors ran the ring with the help of crooked pharmacists and patient recruiters who helped push roughly 1 million painkillers on the street, authorities said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The charges come one day after state officials announced that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
drug overdose deaths are up 14% in Michigan, claiming the lives of 1,745 people in 2014 — with heroin and painkillers as the culprits.
"Diversion of prescription pills to the street market promotes the addiction to painkillers that leads to overdose deaths," U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said in a statement.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"We are focusing on charging doctors, pharmacists and the networks that are putting this poison on the streets."
According to the indictment, the 10 defendants were part of a prescription<span style="color: Red;">*</span>drug-trafficking scheme that ran between 2013 and 2015.
Chiropractor<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Boris Zigmond, 50, of West Bloomfield, was the leader of the operation, according to authorities. He<span style="color: Red;">*</span>secured prescriptions for painkillers that could be filled at various pharmacies. Once the prescriptions were filled the pills were funneled into the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>black market.
Zigmond didn't actually see patients himself or write prescriptions, authorities said. Instead, he set up office suites in several locations in Oak Park, where Dr. Jennifer Franklin and <span style="color: Red;">*</span>Dr. Carlos<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Godoy would see fake patients and write prescriptions, authorities said.
Zigmond was also charged with money laundering.
Attorneys for the defendants were not available for comment.
According to an indictment<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the defendants charged are:
Dr. Boris Zigmond, 50, of West Bloomfield
Dr. Jennifer Franklin, 39, of Harrison Township
Dr. Carlos Godoy, 78, of Farmington Hills
Rodney Knight, 32, of Highland Park
Tara Marcia Jackson, 53, of Detroit
Sashanti Morris, 44, of Detroit
Anna Fradlis, 61, of West Bloomfield
Maryna Pitsenko, 46, of Sterling Heights
Svetlana Sribna, 64, Sterling Heights
Marina Jacobs, 44, of West Bloomfield
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