Eight individuals, including a pediatrician and three pharmacists, have been arrested on conspiracy and possession charges related to the illegal distribution of the opioid oxycodone. The suit, filed in the U.S. District for the Eastern District of New York (the EDNY), also includes money-laundering charges against two of the eight defendants in connection to the alleged conspiracy. 

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the EDNY, the pediatrician and her office manager wrote medically unnecessary oxycodone prescriptions for people posing as patients who, under direction from three other defendants, filled these false prescriptions with the defendant pharmacists. 

The drug-related charges could land the defendants in jail for 20 years. The two defendants charged with money-laundering may see an additional 20 years per count for those charges.