BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Federal authorities have closed a pharmacy in suburban Birmingham suspected of having $6 million in Internet sales of drugs without valid prescriptions over a four-year span.
U.S. Attorney Alice Martin said Wednesday the offices and residences of several individuals and corporations related to the William & Mary Pharmacy, formerly located in Gardendale and Fultondale, were searched by federal investigators.
Two people from Colorado are among those charged in the case.
The government claims the pharmacy dispensed hydrocodone-based prescriptions in excess of $6 million—representing over 75 percent of the pharmacy’s business from May 2002 until March 2006.
Pharmacist James E. Maddox, Jr., 57, of Montevallo, was charged in a criminal Information with misprision of a felony, or having knowledge of the activity without reporting it and concealing evidence. A former pharmacy employee, Stephens C. Puckett, 61, of Birmingham, faces the same charge.
Maddox and Puckett could not be reached for comment. Jill Ellis, a U.S. attorney spokeswoman, said she did not know if the two men had hired attorneys.
Puckett also was described as president and treasurer of Medical Referral Corp. in Jefferson County, which performed services relating to the shipment of controlled substances to pharmacy customers.
A Colorado couple, Melanie Dailey, 44, and James Mitchell Dailey, 43, both physicians from Steamboat Springs, also were charged. She was charged in a criminal information with misprision of a felony. He was charged with unlawfully distributing controlled substances.
Melanie Dailey was a licensed physician in Oregon and Colorado from 2002-2003; James Dailey was a licensed physician in Oregon during that same period.
James Dailey’s attorney, Stephen Shaw of Birmingham, said he could not comment until he discusses the charges with his client. Melanie Dailey’s attorney, Max Pulliam of Birmingham, did not immediately return a phone message for comment.
Under Alabama law, the prescribing of drugs by a practitioner of medicine to an individual the prescriber has not personally examined is usually inappropriate.
The maximum penalty for misprision of a felony is three years in prison, fines of $250,000, or both. The maximum penalty for distribution of controlled substances is 20 years in prison, a fine of $1 million, or both.
In a statement, Martin said special agents with the Food and Drug Administration and the Internal Revenue Service were conducting the investigation.
