A Lincoln man has been sentenced in federal court for conspiring to distribute a controlled substance and for identity theft.
Raymond Reyes, 29, was given four years and nine months in prison by U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez in Sacramento on Tuesday.
Reyes worked for a Sacramento cardiologist as a medical assistant. The doctor caught Reyes calling in fraudulent prescriptions for hydrocodone, an opiate prescribed for pain, according to court documents.
The doctor never prescribed the drug, according to a U.S. Attorney press release. The doctor fired Reyes in late 2008.
Reyes would call pharmacies using false names. He would either pick up the prescriptions himself or others would collect them and give the pills to Reyes for payment, said the press release.
A database shows that about 508 prescriptions for hydrocodone, about 97,000 pills, were distributed by about 89 pharmacies under the purported authority of the doctor for whom Reyes worked, according to the press release.
Reyes admitted in a plea agreement that he was responsible for the distribution of at least 40,000 pills, according to the press release.
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