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Former Orange County physician assistant admits to selling oxycodone prescriptions to drug dealers

A former Fountain Valley physician assistant has pleaded guilty to selling oxycodone prescriptions to drug dealers he knew were going to sell the drugs on the street.

Raif Wadie Iskander, 54, accepted a plea deal via video-conference on Wednesday requiring him to admit to a federal count of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Iskander was arrested in August 2019 at a Ladera Ranch home, but has since moved to Ennis, Montana. Among the “patients” he wrote prescriptions for despite never meeting or examining them was an undercover officer, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In his plea agreement, Iskander admitted that while working as a licensed physician assistant in 2018 and 2019 he would write oxycodone prescriptions with the drug type, dosage and pill quantity filled in but the patient name left blank. He would then provide the prescriptions to “drug brokers” who sold them to drug users for cash, according to the plea agreement, sharing the proceeds with Iskander.

Two of the alleged brokers – Johnny Gilbert Alvarez, of Santa Ana, and Adam Anton Roggero, of Costa Mesa – also have been indicted.

A third broker ended up cooperating with authorities after selling 108 pills of oxycodone for $2,400 to an undercover law enforcement officer, according to court papers. Iskander met that broker twice at the same Aliso Viejo cafe to accept a cash payment and to write more oxycodone prescriptions, according to the plea deal.

According to the plea deal, Iskander knew the oxycodone “would not be used for a legitimate medical purpose” and expected he would be paid by the drug brokers for the prescriptions “after they had been sold to drug customers.”

Roggero already has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and is awaiting sentencing. Alvarez is currently scheduled to go to trial on March 9.

Iskander is scheduled to return to court for sentencing on April 26.


Source: Orange County Register

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