PHILADELPHIA — An Upper Darby man has been convicted by a federal jury for his role in a conspiracy to illegally distribute thousands of oxycodone pills to people suffering from addiction, according to a release from U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Anmol Singh Kamra, 27, of Upper Darby, who worked as a pharmacy technician at Campus Pharmacy at 4027 Market St., was found guilty on one count of conspiring with physician George Fisher and another defendant, Frank Brown, to distribute oxycodone outside the usual course of professional practice and with no legitimate medical purpose between December 2012 and March 2016.

Brown and Fisher both entered pleas earlier this year and are scheduled for sentencing later this month.

Brown began seeing Fisher in 2008 and became a “frequent customer” in 2010, according to an indictment. Fisher’s office was located in the same building where Kamra worked.

Brown would pay Fisher cash in exchange for multiple bogus prescriptions, including those for oxycodone, using his name and the names of others. Brown began using Campus Pharmacy in December 2012, where Kamra would fill the prescriptions in exchange for cash. Brown would then sell the pills on the street.

At other times, Fisher would go to Campus Pharmacy himself and Kamra would relay to him patient names, the amounts of controlled substances and earlier issuance dates to write on the sham prescriptions, according to the indictment. More than 30 different names were employed over the course of the scheme.

Kamra also provided oxycodone pills to Brown even when he did not have a phony prescription, then ask Fisher to backdate the prescription form, according to the indictment. At trial, Kamra testified that this backdating was a “courtesy” on behalf of the doctor so patients could receive their prescriptions in a timely manner, according to the release, but undercover video evidence showed otherwise.

The small pharmacy sold so many opioids that some were hidden under the sink for fear that their distributor would notice the over-abundance and cut them off for exceeding the allowable limit, the release says.

“Kamra was operating nothing more than a corrupt pill mill,” said McSwain. “The misuse of opioids is killing our citizens, and this defendant significantly contributed to our region’s crippling opioid epidemic. We have to do everything possible to stop the illegal distribution of these deadly drugs, especially by professionals entrusted to prescribe and monitor their use.”

Kamra remains free on $50,000 cash bail under a condition of restricted electronic home monitoring. He faces up to 20 years in prison, three years to the life of supervised release, a $1 million fine and a $100 special assessment at sentencing. No sentencing date has been set.

Source : https://www.delcotimes.com/news/upper-darby-pharma-tech-convicted-in-pill-mill-trial/article_802b6b1e-154c-11ea-ba4b-5b5a49a428ca.html