| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 3, 2008 WWW.USDOJ.GOV/USAO/CAN |
OAKLAND – United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced that Frederick Lamar Lindsey was sentenced last week to 14 months in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release for his role in the illegal distribution of large quantities of codeine and other painkillers from California in Houston, Texas.
On October 12, 2006, Mr. Lindsey, 47, of Missouri City, Texas, pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances and travel in interstate commerce to promote and distribute the proceeds of the unlawful activity. According to court documents, Mr. Lindsey purchased controlled substances from a Bay Area non-profit organization, Internal Surplus Medical Products (ISMP), and then distributed these drugs in Houston, Texas. ISMP was established by co-defendant Chuka Ogele in 1997 and received non-profit status from the IRS. While the stated mission of ISMP was to sell medicine and medical products to the Nigerian government for the treatment of AIDS patients in Nigeria, DEA determined that neither Mr. Ogele nor ISMP were authorized to import medicine or medical supplies to Nigeria. Instead, Mr. Ogele illegally sold a substantial amount of controlled substances (more than 40,000 units) on the streets of Oakland, California, and Houston, Texas, for a substantial profit - approximately $2.5 million.
According to the plea agreement, from April 2004 through September 2004, Mr. Lindsey bought large quantities of Schedule III and V controlled substances from Mr. Ogele with the intent to illegally distribute these to other persons in Texas. Ogele falsely represented himself to be a medical doctor and fraudulently utilized a doctor’s medical license and obtained more than $1 million worth of these substances from July 2002 through September 2004. Mr. Ogele also hired persons to sell the drugs on the streets of Oakland, California, and hired others to transport the drugs to Mr. Lindsey in Houston, Texas. Ogele and Lindsey admitted that they used the proceeds of these illegal drug sales to purchase more drugs.
The sentence was handed down by United States District Court Judge Martin J. Jenkins.
Maureen Bessette. is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Cynthia Daniel. The prosecution is the result of a 2-year investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation.
Further Information:
Case #: CR-06-00546-MJJJ
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.
Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Joshua Eaton at (415) 436-6958 or by email at Josh.Eaton@usdoj.gov.