Houston DivisionDEA Fugitives, Houston Fugitives
CARDENAS-GUILLEN, Antonio Ezequiel
PEREZ-Hernandez, David Alberto
View the State Factsheets associated with this Division:
July 22, 2009
DEA Fugitives, Houston Fugitives - Will Dr. Conrad Murray End Up Hanging Out with These Guys?
ALANIZ-ESCALANTE, Hiram
AN, Ning
BALDERAMA, Branden
BARRAGAN-BALDERAS, GILBERTO
BELTRAN, Manuel Montano 
BETANCOURT-RAMIREZ, Alberto 
CANO-FLORES, AURELIO
CASTILLON-SAUCEDO, Salvador 
CAVAZOS, Francisco Lopez
CRUZ-Munoz, Faustino
DELGADO-Poveda, Miguel Angel
EDWARDS, George Arthur
ESPANA-Tijerina, Guadalupe
FLORES, Jose Roberto
FLORES-BORREGO, SAMUEL
FRAGA-Mercado, Javier
FUENTES, Agustin David Jr.
GARCIA-CARRILLO, Maximo
GARCIA, Omar
GARZA, Albertico
GARZA-del rio, Jose 
GOMEZ-VELA, Joel
GONZALEZ, Hector Erasmo
GONZALEZ, Javier
GONZALEZ-DURAN, JAIME
HERNANDEZ, Jose Fransisco
HERNANDEZ-Mendoza, Amilcar
HINOJOSA, Oscar Luis
HUANG, Chun Ming
LAZCANO-LAZCANO, HERIBERTO
LERMA-VELA, Victor Hugo
LEV, Shlomo
LOPEZ-FALCON, Blas Jr.
LUNA-PEREZ , Jose Antonio
McKEARIN, Richard James
MEDINA-ROJAS, ELEAZAR
MEJIA-GONZALEZ, JUAN REYES
QUINTERO, Adrian Moreno
RAMIREZ-TREVINO, MARIO
RANGEL-BUENDIA, ALFREDO
REJON-AGUILAR, JESUS ENRIQUE
REYNOSA-ALEJANDRO, Jorge 
RIASCOS-CAICEDO, Rinson
RIVAS, William 
RODRIGUEZ, Hector Del-Rio 
ROSALES-MENDOZA, Carlos Alberto
SANCHEZ, Luis Carlos 
SHERRY, Leslie Ann
TREVINO-MORALES, MIGUEL
TREVINO-MORALES, OMAR
VALENCIA, Gabriel
VAZQUEZ-Rodriguez, Cristobal
ZAPATA, Brenda
ZAPATA, Edgar Maximiano Jr.
ZHANG, DaguangDEA, Domestic Field Divisions, Houston - Violet M. Szeleczky - SHE'S BACK! (DEA-r Reporters, You're Welcome)
News from DEA, Domestic Field Divisions, Houston News Releases, 07/17/09
Drug Agents Seize Records of Michael Jackson’s Doctor More than two dozen federal agents and police officers descended on the Houston office of Michael Jackson’s personal physician on Wednesday and seized medical records, and a lawyer for the doctor said the authorities were looking for evidence of manslaughter.
In the early morning raid, about 25 officers — including several agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency — scoured the Armstrong Medical Clinic in North Houston, where the physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, keeps an office, as local police officers stood guard outside.
In a statement released shortly after the search began, lawyers for Dr. Murray said the agents were executing a warrant that authorized them to “search for and seize items, including documents, they believed constituted evidence of the offense of manslaughter.” They said the agents seized a forensic image of a business computer hard drive and 21 documents.
“None of the documents taken had previously been requested by law enforcement or the L.A. Coroner’s office,” they said.
It was unclear if the authorities had imminent plans on filing charges against Dr. Murray in connection with Mr. Jackson’s death.
Dr. Murray, who was with Mr. Jackson when he died, has been questioned by investigators on two separate occasions, but a spokesman for Dr. Murray said recently that detectives have requested a third interview and asked him to provide additional medical records.
In a telephone interview, Violet M. Szeleczky of the drug agency, said the agents — joined by two detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department’s homicide division — were executing the search warrant at at the request of the L.A.P.D. She declined however to elaborate on what the officers were looking for, saying the warrant was sealed.
“This is just a state search warrant and we’re here facilitating up on the request of the L.A.P.D.,” she said. “They came to us for assistance and we are doing that.”
The Los Angeles coroner’s office has yet to release the results of its autopsy on Mr. Jackson’s body, but the police department was reportedly acting on preliminary results suggesting that one or more drugs found in lethal amounts in the singer’s system came from Dr. Murray’s office.
The clinic in North Houston is owned by Dr. Davill Armstrong, who has had previous run ins with the authorities. Dr. Armstrong’s license was suspended and his clinic briefly shut down for a time after he was accused of improperly prescribing medication.
Dr. Murray, who has numerous legal judgments against him in the past, was not at the clinic at the time of the raid.
On Wednesday, Tammy Kidd, a publicist for Ed Chernoff, the lawyer representing Dr. Murray, said that the search. “was a surprise” to Mr. Chernoff and his associates.
Mr. Chernoff has said that Dr. Murray did not prescribe any drugs that may have caused Mr. Jackson’s death. In a statement released Tuesday, he said investigators were seeking “more information” from Dr. Murray, including Mr. Jackson’s medical records.
“The coroner wants to clear up the cause of death, we share that goal,” he said. “We don’t have access to the most important information in this case, the toxicology report. We’re still in the dark like everybody else. Based on Dr. Murray’s minute-by-minute and item-by-item description of Michael Jackson’s last days, he should not be a target of criminal charges. Dr. Murray was the last doctor standing when Michael Jackson died and it seems all the fury is directed toward him.”
By noon on Wednesday, the search of Dr. Murray’s office had turned into a spectacle. At least eight Houston police vehicles surrounded the clinic, news helicopters hovered above, and crowds of onlookers gathered nearby. Television images showed federal agents and local officers carting bags of evidence out of the clinic and loading them in the police cars.
Standing outside the clinic, Agent Szeleczky insisted that the search was not a raid, despite the heavy federal and local police presence.
“It’s not a raid,” she said. “A raid means we’re busting in with firearms. That’s not the case.”
News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 17, 2008Contact: Violet M. SzeleczkyNumber: (713) 693-3474Two Houston Area Doctors Charged in Conspiracy to Illegally Distribute Narcotics and Medicare/Medicain Fraud
JUL 17 -- (HOUSTON) - Dr. Arun Sharma and his wife, Dr. Kiran Sharma, M.D., both 54, have been charged in a 29-count indictment alleging conspiracy to unlawfully dispense and distribute controlled substances outside the scope of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose, United States Attorney Tim Johnson, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Zoran B. Yankovich and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced today. The indictment alleges the two doctors illegally distributed 1.3 million tablets of hydrocodone and further charges the two doctors with conspiracy to defraud Medicare, Medicaid and several private health insurance companies of $31 million by filing false claims for medical procedures that were never performed.
“This indictment reflects the DEA’s effort to identify and target doctors who discredit the medical health profession who are nothing more than drug peddlers in doctors’ gowns motivated by greed with no regard for the well being of the public,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Zorn B. Yankovich. “By obtaining the voluntary surrender of DEA registration’s from questionable doctors, the DEA Tactical Diversion Squad is able to put these illegal practices out of business. The DEA will continue to pursue these pain clinic-pill mill operations that have taken root in the Houston area.”
According to the allegations in the indictment returned by a federal grand jury late yesterday afternoon, the Sharmas operate the Allergy, Asthma, Arthritis and Pain Centers located at on Cole Street in Webster, Texas, and another on Garth Road in Baytown, Texas. The indictment alleges that Dr. Arun Sharma routinely saw in excess of 70 patients per day and that he routinely wrote prescriptions for hydrocodone that were not for a legitimate medical purpose in exchange for cash payments. Dr. Sharma allegedly received the cash payments for his hydrocodone prescriptions directly from the patient and that he instructed his patients to take the prescriptions to certain pharmacies to be filled.
Arun and Kiran Sharma, according to the indictment, stored large amounts of cash received from the sale of hydrocodone prescriptions at their home. Kiran Sharma allegedly transported large amounts of cash received from the sale of the hydrocodone prescriptions to two safe deposit boxes - one each at Bank of America and Prosperity Bank.
The doctors also were charged with specific counts of illegal drug distribution for hydrocodone prescriptions written to specific patients. In one count, they are charged with prescribing more than 8,000 tablets of hydrocodone to one patient over an eight month period. In two other counts, they are charged with prescribing 540 tablets of hydrocodone to one patient on May 23, 2005, and another 540 tablets to the same patient on Dec. 5, 2005.
Both doctors are also accused of conspiring to defraud Medicare, Medicaid and private healthcare insurers including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, Aetna, Cigna and United Healthcare of more than $31 million for facet joint injections and other medical procedures that were allegedly never performed.
The United States also gave notice in the indictment to the doctors that it intended to forfeit their interest in all of the proceeds of the fraud and the drug distribution.
The court has ordered that a summons issue directing the Sharma’s to appear in federal court for arraignment on Aug. 3, 2009.
Upon conviction, each of the 17 health care fraud counts and the healthcare conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in a federal prison and a $250,000 fine. The drug conspiracy and each of the 10 drug distribution counts carries a penalty of five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. Parole has been abolished in the federal prison system.
The criminal charges are the result of a joint investigation being conducted by agents of the FBI, the DEA, the Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General and the Medicare Fraud Control Unit of the Texas Attorney General's Office in conjunction with the Webster, League City and Baytown Police Departments. The case will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Al Balboni.
An indictment is an accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence.
A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until convicted through due process of law.
###
DEA, Domestic Field Divisions, Houston - Violet M. Szeleczky (DEA-r Reporters, You're Welcome)
News ReleaseNews from DEA, Domestic Field Divisions, Houston News Releases, 07/17/09
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 17, 2008Contact: Violet M. SzeleczkyNumber: (713) 693-3474Two Houston Area Doctors Charged in Conspiracy to Illegally Distribute Narcotics and Medicare/Medicain Fraud
JUL 17 -- (HOUSTON) - Dr. Arun Sharma and his wife, Dr. Kiran Sharma, M.D., both 54, have been charged in a 29-count indictment alleging conspiracy to unlawfully dispense and distribute controlled substances outside the scope of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose, United States Attorney Tim Johnson, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Zoran B. Yankovich and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced today. The indictment alleges the two doctors illegally distributed 1.3 million tablets of hydrocodone and further charges the two doctors with conspiracy to defraud Medicare, Medicaid and several private health insurance companies of $31 million by filing false claims for medical procedures that were never performed.
“This indictment reflects the DEA’s effort to identify and target doctors who discredit the medical health profession who are nothing more than drug peddlers in doctors’ gowns motivated by greed with no regard for the well being of the public,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Zorn B. Yankovich. “By obtaining the voluntary surrender of DEA registration’s from questionable doctors, the DEA Tactical Diversion Squad is able to put these illegal practices out of business. The DEA will continue to pursue these pain clinic-pill mill operations that have taken root in the Houston area.”
According to the allegations in the indictment returned by a federal grand jury late yesterday afternoon, the Sharmas operate the Allergy, Asthma, Arthritis and Pain Centers located at on Cole Street in Webster, Texas, and another on Garth Road in Baytown, Texas. The indictment alleges that Dr. Arun Sharma routinely saw in excess of 70 patients per day and that he routinely wrote prescriptions for hydrocodone that were not for a legitimate medical purpose in exchange for cash payments. Dr. Sharma allegedly received the cash payments for his hydrocodone prescriptions directly from the patient and that he instructed his patients to take the prescriptions to certain pharmacies to be filled.
Arun and Kiran Sharma, according to the indictment, stored large amounts of cash received from the sale of hydrocodone prescriptions at their home. Kiran Sharma allegedly transported large amounts of cash received from the sale of the hydrocodone prescriptions to two safe deposit boxes - one each at Bank of America and Prosperity Bank.
The doctors also were charged with specific counts of illegal drug distribution for hydrocodone prescriptions written to specific patients. In one count, they are charged with prescribing more than 8,000 tablets of hydrocodone to one patient over an eight month period. In two other counts, they are charged with prescribing 540 tablets of hydrocodone to one patient on May 23, 2005, and another 540 tablets to the same patient on Dec. 5, 2005.
Both doctors are also accused of conspiring to defraud Medicare, Medicaid and private healthcare insurers including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, Aetna, Cigna and United Healthcare of more than $31 million for facet joint injections and other medical procedures that were allegedly never performed.
The United States also gave notice in the indictment to the doctors that it intended to forfeit their interest in all of the proceeds of the fraud and the drug distribution.
The court has ordered that a summons issue directing the Sharma’s to appear in federal court for arraignment on Aug. 3, 2009.
Upon conviction, each of the 17 health care fraud counts and the healthcare conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in a federal prison and a $250,000 fine. The drug conspiracy and each of the 10 drug distribution counts carries a penalty of five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. Parole has been abolished in the federal prison system.
The criminal charges are the result of a joint investigation being conducted by agents of the FBI, the DEA, the Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General and the Medicare Fraud Control Unit of the Texas Attorney General's Office in conjunction with the Webster, League City and Baytown Police Departments. The case will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Al Balboni.
An indictment is an accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence.
A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until convicted through due process of law.
###
DEA Diversion Control Program - Criminal Cases Against Doctors JUST WAITING FOR DOC CON TO POST TO THE BOARD
DEA Diversion Control Program - Criminal Cases Against DoctorsCases Against Doctors > Criminal Cases
Cases Against Doctors
*Criminal Cases
* This web site is a listing of investigations of physician registrants in which DEA was involved that resulted in the arrest and prosecution of the registrant. DEA is in the process of adding to this site cases against DEA physician registrants since 2003 which have resulted in arrests and prosecutions.
- Last Name beginning with A-F
- Last Name beginning with G-L
- Last Name beginning with M-R
- Last Name beginning with S-Z
Name:
MACH, Philip, MD
City, State:
New Brunswick, NJ
Date of Arrest:
08/31/2005
Date of Conviction:
05/10/2007
Judicial Status:
Pled Guilty
Conviction:
Conspiracy to distribute and dispense, and aiding and abetting the unlawful distribution and dispensing of, controlled substances
DEA Registration:
Retired
Remarks:
Phillip Mach, MD, age 49, of New Brunswick, NJ, pled guilty in federal court to conspiracy to distribute and dispense, and aiding and abetting the unlawful distribution and dispensing of, controlled substances by means that were outside of the usual course of professional medical practice and without a legitimate medical purpose.
According to court documents, Mach was a physician licensed to practice medicine by the State of New Jersey with offices in New Brunswick. Mach entered into an agreement with Xpress Pharmacy Direct, located in Minnesota, to provide prescriptions to online customers.
Mach was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release, and assessed a $200.00 criminal monetary penalty.
DEA Searches Jackson Doctor's Office | Houston weather, traffic, and news | MyFoxHouston.com | FOX 26
DEA Searches Jackson
Doctor's OfficeUpdated: Wednesday, 22 Jul 2009, 12:32 PM CDT
Published : Wednesday, 22 Jul 2009, 11:02 AM CDTHOUSTON - The Drug Enforcement Administration is conducting a raid on the Acres Homes office of Dr. Conrad Murray, FOX 26 News has learned.
Murray has been thrust into national attention as the attending physician who was with Michael Jackson on the day he died.
Investigators from the Los Angeles Police Department and agents from the DEA conducted an investigation on Tuesday in Las Vegas, where Murray also has an office location, according to a FOXNews.com report.
Dr. Conrad Murray is the cardiologist who reportedly was in Michael Jackson's Los Angeles mansion when the entertainer collapsed | AP File Photo
Federal Agents Raid Houston Office of Michael Jackson's Personal Physician - DOES ANYONE ELSE THINK DR. CON LOOKS BAKED IN THE EYES? FOXNews.com
Federal Agents Raid Houston Office of Michael Jackson's Personal Physician - Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Arts And Entertainment - FOXNews.comFederal Agents Raid Houston Office of Michael Jackson's Personal Physician
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
AP
Michael Jackson's cardiologist, Dr. Conrad Murray, is seen in this July 7, 2006 photo.
Michael Jackson's cardiologist, Dr. Conrad Murray, is seen in this July 7, 2006 photo.
The Drug Enforcement Agency raided the Houston office of Michael Jackson's personal physician on Wednesday, a law enforcement official told FOXNews.com.
Officials descended upon the office of Dr. Conrad Murray, likely in search of medical records pertaining to Jackson, whom Murray was assisting on June 25 at the time of the singer's death.
The raid began shortly after 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday, when several DEA vehicles accompanied Houston and Los Angeles police departments to the scene.
The LAPD, which has been in charge of the investigation, was serving a warrant to Murray's office at the Armstrong Medical Clinic in Houston.
The Armstrong Clinic is owned by Davill Armstrong, who has had previous trouble with the state medical board. In 2006, his license was suspended due to "concerns about Armstrong's judgment, competency, and general medical knowledge," before being reinstated in May. In 2008, he was fined $2,000 for allowing his wife to prescribe medication from the office while his license was suspended and no physician was present.
FULL COVERAGE: Click here for FOXNews.com's complete coverage of Michael Jackson's death.
On Tuesday, FOXNews.com learned that federal authorities were conducting an investigation in Las Vegas, where Murray also has an office, to follow up on leads indicating that at least one of the drugs that contributed to Jackson's death originated there.
Police questioned Murray twice shortly after Jackson's death, which is being treated as a homicide.
A law enforcement source told FOXNews.com that investigators are using the results of preliminary toxicology reports, which have not yet been released to the public, to track down the sources of the drugs found in high concentrations in Jackson’s system.
Investigators have also been tracking down all drugs recovered from Jackson’s rented Holmby Hills mansion in the days following the singer's death.The investigative team received assistance from members of local enforcement and spent the day conducting interviews at medical facilities, the source said. The team was expected to return to Los Angeles by Tuesday morning.
FOXNews.com has also learned that the Medical Board of California has started proceedings that could strip Murray of his license to practice medicine.
The Medical Board of California has informed Murray that he is the subject of a malpractice investigation, a law enforcement official told FOXNews.com.
Murray is licensed to practice in California, Texas and Nevada.
The Texas Medical Board and the State of Nevada Board of Medical Examiners are assisting in the California investigation.
Miranda Sevcik, a spokeswoman for Murray’s legal team, said, "We have no information on any investigation by the state medical board."
She says Murray continues to cooperate with police
Elvis, your e-passport is ready! | Storage Bits | ZDNet.com
Elvis, your e-passport is ready! | Storage Bits | ZDNet.comE-passports not only threaten your personal safety traveling, the RFID chips are easy to clone and fake. How easy? Here’s the picture of Elvis Presley’s e-passport:
The photo is taken from a passport scanner at a Dutch airport - no alarms or errors. But let’s look on the bright side: some salesman is making millions and some former bureaucrats have cushy gigs with RFID consultants.
Feel better now?
The Hacker’s Choice, that gen’d up the Elvis passport chip, tells you how to do it. The fake e-passport chip business is just starting: get in on the ground floor!
But wait: it gets better!
In theory the RFID passports improve security - uh-huh - and are faster to process. The first is laughable; the second not much better. Why?The e-passport still has to be opened to confirm that what the chips says is also what the printed passport says. How is that faster?
What is faster are the new RFID chipped ID cards for border crossings: they broadcast their unencrypted info for 10 meters or more. Wow!
And you know the nifty key Speed Pass that buys gas? They’ve been hacked too.
But for the larcenous nothing beats RFID credit cards. They can be hacked for $8 from a foot or more away.
The Storage Bits take
RFID are great for their original application: tracking goods in a warehouse. But they are horribly insecure for financial and identity applications.There may be some workarounds. If the immigration agent’s terminal queried a central database that brought up a 2nd photo not on the passport, then we could be fairly certain that it wasn’t a forgery.
Another alternative: optical - not radio - data storage and encryption. A bar code scanner on a microscope could read tiny barcodes embedded in your photo - a concept not unlike the Dataglyphs developed at Xerox PARC.
The larger point is that RFID passports, drivers licenses, credit cards and other identity documents are a Bad Idea. We KNOW that techno-criminals are ripping off people on the web. Why won’t these same people move on to RFID when the economics make sense?
And when there are hundreds of millions RFID documents circulating, we won’t be able to issue a patch and fix the hole in a few weeks. No, these holes will be open for years. Good luck with that.
'Peter Pan, created especially for Michael Jackson by Walt Disney World Display'. Estimate: $3,000 - $5,000
Oil on canvas, framed with a plaque stating 'Peter Pan, created especially for Michael Jackson by Walt Disney World Display'. Estimate: $3,000 - $5,000
Photograph: Shaan Kokin/Julien's Auctions
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