BIRMINGHAM – A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a Jasper pharmacist to two years in prison for illegally dispensing opioid painkillers and other controlled substances, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Robert O. Posey and Drug Enforcement Administration Assistant Special Agent in Charge Bret Hamilton.
U.S. District Court Judge Abdul K. Kallon sentenced GEORGE RICHARD BOLLING JR., 55, on one count of conspiring, between January 2013 and March 2015, to illegally distribute and dispense prescription drugs including oxycodone, methadone, morphine sulfate, hydrocodone, ketamine HCL, zolpidem tartrate, alprazolam and clonazepam in Walker, Lamar, Winston and Fayette counties. The judge also sentenced Bolling on two counts of illegally transferring oxycodone, an opioid painkiller, between pharmacies in Walker and Fayette counties, once on March 6, 2013, and once on July 21, 2013. Bolling pleaded guilty to the charges in October 2016. He must report to prison May 8.
Bolling owned five northwestern Alabama pharmacies that were implicated in connection with his crimes: Berry Discount Apothecary in Berry, Bolling Apothecary in Fayette, Hospital Discount Apothecary in Vernon, Brown’s Discount Apothecary in Jasper, and Gateway Discount Apothecary in Double Springs. Bolling has sold the pharmacies and, as part of his plea and sentence, has forfeited his DEA registration numbers and his State of Alabama Board of Pharmacy permits and license number. He also had to forfeit $75,000 to the government as proceeds of illegal activity.
Bolling’s prosecution was a result of a long-term investigation conducted in connection with DEA’s Operation Pilluted in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi in 2015, which focused on reducing the trafficking and abuse of pharmaceuticals and also brought about the prosecution of three Birmingham-area physicians for illegally distributing controlled substances.
DEA investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory R. Dimler prosecuted.
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