$9 million online pharmacy scheme lands cop in prison

A former Florida police officer is heading to prison for his role in an illegal online pharmacy scheme that he ran with another officer, nurses, and several pharmacists. The scheme brought in more than $9 million in revenue in about three years, officials said.

Craig Greer, 43, took part in promoting the online scheme and helped his conspirators launder the money through a brick-and-mortar pharmacy called Discount Pharmacy of Pines, according to officials. Between 2009 and 2012, Greer and his accomplices distributed hundreds of of thousands of narcotic pills like hydrocodone, phentermine, Xanax, and codeine to clients across the country.

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Greer was sentenced last week to 60 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones, who told the former officer at sentencing that the conspiracy "pumped into our community an enormous amount of drugs...impacting people you will never see but whose lives and families you destroyed by feeding their addiction."

Greer and his accomplices promoted the faux-pharmacy with email blasts to people across the U.S. and often charged customers 10 times the actual price of the drugs, which in many cases were provided without a valid prescription. To get the drugs, Greer and his accomplices employed a variety of schemes, including using the DEA identification numbers for doctors in the same geographic location as the client, but without the doctor's knowledge.

One of Greer's accomplices, 48-year-old Kevin Kogan, is also heading to prison to serve a 30-month sentence for his role, which was to build the websites and servers for the pharmacies. In addition to running the tech side of the operation, authorities say he destroyed evidence, lied to investigators, and moved one of the company's servers overseas.

The other former officer involved in the scheme, 48-year-old Juan Gallinal, pleaded guilty in 2014 and will be sentenced in October. Another accomplice, 83-year-old pharmacist Jerry Delman, is awaiting a potential trial if he is found medically fit to participate.

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