FLORIDA – A federal jury in the Southern District of Florida convicted a Tampa pharmacist and pharmacy owner of dispensing more than 335,000 high-strength oxycodone pills to customers who had no medical need for the drug, authorities said.
Olushola Yusuf, 60, was found guilty of conspiracy to illegally distribute drugs and five counts of illegal drug distribution, court documents and evidence presented at trial showed. Prosecutors said Yusuf dispensed at least 335,351 pills of oxycodone 30 mg — the maximum strength — through two pharmacies she owned and operated in South Florida.
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Yusuf ran Boots LLC, doing business as Striderite, in Margate, and Chans Pharmacy Plus Inc. in Pembroke Pines. Prosecutors said she required customers to pay in cash, charged roughly 10 times the typical cost and continued filling prescriptions for people who could not get the drug elsewhere. Some customers reportedly paid as much as $1,000 a month in cash; others were drug dealers picking up pills for multiple patients who were not present.
“Whether you deal drugs on a street corner or from behind a pharmacy counter, the Fraud Division will hold you fully accountable under the law,” Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division said in a statement. “The defendant abused the public trust by using her pharmacies to unlawfully distribute deadly opioids.”
Prosecutors said customers traveled long distances across Florida to have Yusuf fill prescriptions, and witnesses testified that Yusuf kept her pharmacy doors locked during business hours and only opened for certain identified customers. She allegedly persisted despite repeated warnings from employees and the Drug Enforcement Administration about the dangers of her operations.
“By distributing dangerous and highly addictive narcotics, the defendant demonstrated a clear disregard for their community and endangered countless residents who should have been able to trust their pharmacist,” FBI Co-Deputy Director Christopher Raia said. “The opioid epidemic continues to plague our nation, which is why the FBI, along with our partners, will continue to hold the criminals poisoning our communities with these drugs accountable.”
U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida said Yusuf “knowingly flooded South Florida communities with more than 335,000 high-dose oxycodone pills, even after her employees and the DEA warned her about the dangers of her conduct.”
DEA Chief of Operations Matthew W. Allen said pharmacists are a critical safeguard against diversion of controlled substances and that Yusuf “abandoned that responsibility, exploited addiction, and endangered lives for personal profit.”
Prosecutors also said Yusuf bought patient data and used it to generate sham medical orders, targeting seniors and people with disabilities and seeking to drain federal health care programs. Miranda L. Bennett, acting deputy inspector general for investigations at the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, said the verdict shows HHS-OIG and partners will hold accountable anyone who defrauds programs or preys on vulnerable people.
Yusuf’s co-defendant, Saman Gimenez, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to illegally distribute drugs and is scheduled to be sentenced in October. Yusuf faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count. A federal judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors; a sentencing hearing is set for Oct. 14, 2026.
The HHS-OIG, FBI, VA-OIG and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service are investigating the case.