Macomb pharmacist sentenced for trafficking

A Sterling Heights man who formerly operated an Oakland County pharmacy was sentenced Thursday to seven years in federal prison after he was convicted of distributing over 25,000 opioid pills and money laundering.

Yousef Kosho, 44, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Robert H. Cleland in federal court in Port Huron. As part of his sentence, Kosho was ordered to to forfeit approximately $1.2 million in cash that was seized by federal agents during the investigation into his scheme.

“This pharmacist was spreading poison in our community instead of dispensing medicine and providing sound medical advice,” U.S. Attorney Ison said in a statement.

According to federal prosecutors, Kosho operated Great Health Pharmacy in Madison Heights, where he plotted his illegal distribution of prescription drugs.

Court records show he set up a network of patient recruiters outside the course of usual professional pharmacy practice and would dispense controlled substances by filling prescriptions for cash.

One of those recruiters was Omar Madison, a co-defendant who was sentenced in February to 72 months in prison after pleading guilty to a drug trafficking conspiracy charge.

Prosecutors said the prescriptions would be dispensed in the names of patients who never frequented the pharmacy. Madison would simply provide prescriptions to Kosho for dispensing without ever bringing the patient to the pharmacy.

At other times, Kosho would sell entire pharmacy stock bottles of controlled substances to Madison and others without any medical prescriptions.

Kosho pled guilty to unlawfully dispensing 25,250 doses of Schedule II controlled substances including oxycodone HCl, oxymorphone HCl, oxycodone-acetaminophen, hydrocodone-acetaminophen, and more than 200,000 milliliters of Schedule V controlled substance promethazine with codeine.

Codeine/promethazine syrup is a highly soughtafter drug, known by the street names “lean,” “purple drank,” and “sizzurp.”

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Alison Furtaw and Regina McCullough, as part of the district’s efforts to address the nation’s opioid crisis. The Eastern District of Michigan is one of twelve districts included in the Attorney General’s Opioid Fraud Abuse and Detection initiative.

The case was investigated by special agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations.